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On January 20, President Trump signed 26 Executive Orders on a range of topics from TikTok to immigration, including six Orders that impact federal workers. We have summarized the Orders that impact federal workers and prepared a Federal Employee's Guide to Employment Uncertainty for your reference.
1. The Hiring Freeze is an immediate hiring freeze within the executive branch of government. Starting at noon on January 20, 2025, no Federal civilian position that is currently vacant can be filled and no new position can be created (with some exceptions, including military personnel and immigration enforcement).
2. Return to In-Person Work requires all heads of departments and agencies in the executive branch to end remote work arrangements and require employees to “return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis,” with some exceptions.
3. Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service designates the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, in consultation with other agencies, to develop a new Federal Hiring Plan. Elements of the Federal Hiring Plan will include preventing “the hiring of individuals based on their race, sex, or religion, and prevent the hiring of individuals who are unwilling to defend the Constitution or to faithfully serve the Executive Branch” and decreasing “government-wide time-to-hire to under 80 days.”
4. Holding Former Government Officials Accountable for Election Interference and Improper Disclosure of Sensitive Government Information revokes any active security clearances held by “former intelligence officials who engaged in misleading and inappropriate political coordination with the 2020 Biden presidential campaign” and John R. Bolton. You can find the full list here.
5. Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives mandates the creation of Career Senior Executive Service (SES) Performance Plans that agencies must adopt; allows for agency heads to reassign SES positions; and calls for the termination of the existing Executive Resources Board (ERB) and Performance Review Board memberships.
6. Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce reinstates Executive Order 13957, removing some employment protections for federal workers, and revokes Executive Order 14003, which had added some federal worker protections.
If you believe that you will be affected by these new Executive Orders, you should start acting now. Consider contacting your union representative/s (if you have one), the Merit Systems Protection Board, your manager, and an attorney representing public sector employees or reference our Federal Employee's Guide to Employment Uncertainty.
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