Sens. Coons and Kaine call on POTUS to reconsider management of federal workforce

Wilmington, DE – In response to a January memorandum from President Donald J. Trump, Sens. Coons (D-DE) and Kaine (D-VA), along with 16 of their colleagues, called on President Trump to reconsider his decision of halting all hiring in key government agencies. The memo, which placed a wide-ranging hiring freeze on the civil federal workforce, is currently impacting dozens of federal agencies and their abilities to serve the American people.  The budget blueprint released by the administration last week also proposes cuts that will, if enacted, extend and exacerbate these impacts.

“This hiring freeze is a short-sighted and ineffective attempt to address the size of the federal workforce,” said Sen. Coons. “This is not a nuanced, thoughtful policy but a haphazard attack on a workforce that has remained the same size for 50 years, even as our population has grown by over 50 percent. This mismanagement hurts agencies and programs that affect our constituents, including veterans, seniors, and small business owners. These effects put people at risk, delay economic advancement, and impact our leadership at home and abroad.”

“The Trump Administration’s continued attacks on federal employees, including 170,000 in Virginia, discredits the hard work of our public servants and leaves them without the necessary resources to do their jobs,” Kaine said. “This hiring freeze exacerbates labor shortages across our government, delays care for our veterans at VA facilities, and risk the economic stability of Virginians trying to file for Social Security benefits or secure paperwork for their small businesses. This delay in hiring and the proposed drastic cuts to the federal workforce could have a detrimental impact on the function of our government for years to come.”

The freeze is currently having severe impacts across the country including inability to hire civilian workers, such as childcare providers, on military bases; and a disproportionate impact on veterans, who receive preference in hiring for federal positions.

Other federal agencies adversely impacted include the Patent and Trademark Office, the Social Security Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the federal prison system.

Previous hiring freezes had significant costs and were ineffective in changing the size of the federal workforce.  Hiring freezes also hurt employee morale and damage efforts to recruit new talent, keeping the next generation of employees with diverse backgrounds and expertise out of the civil service.

The letter was also signed by Senators Baldwin (D-WI), Merkley (D-OR), Warren (D-MA), Durbin (D-IL), Gillibrand (D-NY), Blumenthal (D-CT), Cardin (D-MD), Brown (D-OH), Van Hollen (D-MD), Feinstein (D-CA), Warner (D-VA), Carper (D-DE), Franken (D-MN), Hirono (D-HI), Wyden (D-OR) and Shaheen (D-NH).  It is included in full below.

March 21, 2017

The Honorable Donald Trump

President of the United States of America

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20500

Mr. President:

Your memorandum of January 23, 2017, placed a freeze on all federal civilian hiring, with limited exceptions.  This appears to be in response to misconceptions about the size of the federal workforce and the misguided notion that this will save taxpayers money.  While the memorandum provides exemptions for “national security or public safety,” additional guidance given in M-17-18 on January 31 makes clear that agencies must conduct additional consultation for these exemptions.  It is unacceptable for an agency to be required to jump through hoops when filling critical positions for highly trained individuals such as medical professionals, food safety inspectors, or air traffic controllers.  We are also troubled by the administration’s proposed budget cuts, which would reduce the federal workforce by historic levels and slash funding for vital domestic programs.  There are many federal missions outside the scope of “national security or public safety” that impact public welfare and provide important services to our constituents.  Sweeping cuts to the federal workforce will negatively impact these missions and a lack of agency personnel and resources may interfere with statutory requirements to carry out programs that have been mandated by Congress.

The civilian federal workforce has remained relatively consistent in size over the last 50 years and has been essentially flat over the past 8 years.^[1],[2]  This is in contrast to the size of the U.S. population, which has increased from just under 200 million in 1967 to 325 million today.^[3]  The most recent across-the-board freezes, which were instituted by Presidents Carter and Reagan between 1977 and 1981, had significant costs and were ineffective at controlling federal employment.  According to a 1982 GAO report, these freezes ignored individual agency missions, led to increased overtime, and resulted in fewer debt and revenue collections.^[4]  Hiring freezes and indiscriminate budget cuts also damage recruiting efforts, inhibiting the entrance of younger employees with diverse backgrounds and expertise into the civil service and eventually leading to loss of skills as older employees retire without a younger generation to take their place.

In addition to the potential costs, we are deeply concerned about the negative impacts the hiring freeze and budget cuts may impose on our constituents, both directly and indirectly.  You assert the freeze is part of your commitment to “clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, D.C.,” yet you ignore the fact that 85% of the federal workforce lives and works outside of the DC Metro area,^[5] providing important services for our constituents where they live.  As noted in the previous paragraph, the federal workforce has not increased in the past 50 years, yet the U.S. population has increased by over 50 percent.  Federal employment is now less than 2 percent of the total U.S. workforce^[6] and federal employees have been asked to do more with fewer resources for years.  These continued cuts hurt programs and impact our citizens, their jobs and communities, and the economy as a whole. 

Some examples of our concerns include:

• Longer wait times and reduced service at the Social Security Administration, which staffs over 1,200 offices in all 50 states and around the world to assist American seniors and people with disabilities with accessing the retirement and health benefits that they have earned.
• Reduced staff at local USDA Rural Development offices, which connect USDA resources for housing, utilities, businesses, and community facilities with the rural areas they serve.  Without sufficient personnel, these connections cannot be made and our rural communities suffer.
• A disproportionate impact on veterans, who receive hiring preference when it comes to federal jobs and make up over 30 percent of the federal workforce.^[7]  Additionally, we are concerned about the impact on the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) Program, which serves America's veterans by preparing them for meaningful careers, providing employment resources and expertise, and protecting their employment rights.
• Harm to small and large businesses alike from delays in securing patent protection for their intellectual property if the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) cannot hire enough patent examiners to continue to reduce the backlog of patent applications, to the detriment of America’s innovation economy.  Given that the USPTO collects fees for its services, imposing a freeze on this agency is particularly questionable because it does not allow the agency to calibrate the number of employees with the demand for services.
• Impacts on enforcement of critical federal laws by the Department of Justice (DOJ), including criminal laws, civil laws, and regulatory reviews.  Some divisions within DOJ are statutorily required to investigate certain complaints, and some generate revenue for the government, again highlighting the potential cost of this freeze. 
• Safety threats to officers in federal prisons and communities nearby when the number of inmates in these prisons increases but the Federal Bureau of Prisons cannot hire additional officers to maintain a proper and safe correctional officer-to-inmate ratio. 
• Administration of federal grants to conduct basic scientific research and hiring of scientists and engineers at government laboratories.  Laboratories such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Energy National Labs maintain world-class research facilities and conduct research critical for our economy and our national security.  More broadly, government-funded research not only improves our national defense, health, energy, and agriculture; but also strengthens our understanding of basic questions of our physical world that may lead to new discoveries and technologies in the future.
• Delayed approval of critical new drugs and medical devices from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  The 21^st Century Cures Act was recently enacted into law and is intended to spur innovation and speed up the review and approval of promising medical therapies and treatments, partially by giving the FDA the tools and resources they need to recruit talented employees.  A broad hiring freeze will directly conflict with the goals of the 21^st Century Cures Act and will slow down the scientific review and approval of cutting edge advancements in medicine.
• A disruption to the entrance of new Foreign Service officers and specialists, who play a critical role in advancing America’s interests and national security.  This hiring freeze will weaken U.S. diplomacy and delay the recruitment of dedicated, qualified applicants.

As you can see from the sample of programs listed above, which is only a fraction of the important work carried out by the federal government, there are many key services that help protect public health and welfare, drive our economy, and help us maintain our leadership at home and abroad.  While we agree that it is important to use federal resources efficiently and effectively, the freeze and the across-the-board cuts proposed in the budget are blunt instruments that negatively impact federal workforce morale, our communities and our country.  We therefore ask that you immediately end the hiring freeze, and we look forward to seeing a more thoughtful analysis of where efficiencies can be achieved in the federal workforce.