The Pentagon has asked for further guidance from the White House over who exactly is covered by the hiring freeze President Trump imposed Monday for most federal workers.
The executive order signed by the president halts the hiring of all new federal civilian workers and the filling of any vacant positions with the exception of “military personnel.”
For the Pentagon the question is: Do civilians who work for the military constitute “military personnel?”
It’s an important question, given a large part of the Pentagon’s 23,000-strong workforce are civilians, and around the nation and the world the Department of Defense employs 750,256 workers as of Tuesday.
In response to a request for clarification, a Pentagon spokesman admitted there is some confusion at the moment.
“Our office for Civilian Personnel Policy is working with the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget to determine the applicability of this freeze to civilian personnel positions with the DOD,” Pentagon spokesman Johnny Michael said in an email.
There are some other ways to get around the freeze.
For one, the president’s order allows the head of any executive department or agency to exempt positions deemed necessary to meet national security or public safety responsibilities.
Defense Secretary James Mattis hired a new chief of staff Monday, the same day the freeze took effect, but the policy does not apply to the hiring and placement of political appointees.
The presidential memorandum says it “does not limit the nomination and appointment of officials to positions requiring Presidential appointment or Senate confirmation, the appointment of officials to non-career positions in the Senior Executive Service or to Schedule C positions in the Excepted Service, or the appointment of any other officials who serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority.”
The hiring freeze will end after the Office of Personnel Management comes up with a long-term plan to reduce the size of the federal government’s workforce through attrition, the White House says.