With a stroke of his pen on Monday, Republican President Donald Trump ordered a hiring freeze on all federal government positions. The executive order will affect at least 50 jobs in Vermont. Thirteen of those jobs are at the VA in White River Junction.
The freeze is expected to last 90 days, at which point Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget is instructed to “recommend a long-term plan to reduce the size of the federal government’s workforce through attrition.”
Trump has also ordered a freeze on grants and contracts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That mandate could have a direct impact on the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, which receives 40 percent of its funding from the federal government.
Julie Moore, the secretary of the state agency, said Tuesday the EPA freeze is troubling.
“We are gravely concerned about President Trump’s announcement today and how it would impact programs in Vermont,” she said.
About $32 million in EPA funds supports the Department of Environmental Conservation annually. Roughly divided, about $12 million is for DEC staff and services, while $20 million is allocated for drinking and wastewater infrastructure improvements in Vermont.
Moore said that she had reached out to the Vermont congressional delegation and EPA on Tuesday morning, but that few details emerged regarding what sources of federal money were going to be shut off.
“We don’t yet know if the freeze applies to new grants and contracts or existing grants and contracts,” Moore said. “Our concern is that we have a plan in place — and in motion — in the middle of a fiscal year. Any change could have dire consequences in terms of how we operate.”
The federal government’s hiring site, USAJOBS.gov, shows that there are more than 50 federal job openings currently listed in Vermont spanning various agencies and positions, from an Air Force social worker to an aviation inspector at the Department of Transportation.
The federal job cuts in Vermont
It’s unclear how many of these online postings have been frozen, or if they represent all the vacancies in the state.
David Carle, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., suggested there were additional federal vacancies beyond what was posted online, and, that with a freeze, many Vermonters would be adversely impacted.
“While the new administration has promised to serve the needs of rural communities, the freeze comes at a time when many of the USDA positions directly serving Vermont farmers already are vacant, locking in place a deficit that will hurt rural communities as spring rapidly approaches,” Carle said in a statement Tuesday. “In Vermont, it’s already clear that the consequences will be wide ranging, affecting everything from water quality to access to health care and wait times for veterans.”
In statements, Leahy and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., railed against Trump’s decision to freeze federal jobs. (Two spokesmen for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., did not respond to press inquiries about the cuts.)
“Federal employees aren’t ‘Washington bureaucrats,’” Welch said. “They’re single moms doing important environmental research, recent college graduates serving veterans, and hockey dads doing maintenance on federal facilities. This freeze is arbitrary, unwarranted, and demoralizing to the federal workforce.”
Leahy was similarly brusque in his indictment of the freeze, accusing Trump of showcasing a lack of prudent business skills.
“Reducing the workforce by forced attrition is mindless, ineffective management,” Leahy said. “Would a Trump Hotel continue to operate without key maintenance staff simply because those positions happened to be open when a hiring freeze took effect? Should veterans be forced to make do without audiology services simply because an audiologist position was vacant on January 20?”
The top three agencies in Vermont with the most open positions on the federal job site as of Tuesday evening were the Department of Treasury (16), the Department of Veterans Affairs (13) and the Department of Homeland Security (9).
Trump’s order does not apply to military personnel, and exceptions may be made for other public safety and national security positions.
Trump’s directive, however, does not mention specific agencies immune to the freeze.
“It’s anything but clear right now what this will mean for agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol, Transportation Security Administration or Internal Revenue Service,” Carle said.
In an email Tuesday, Brad Brant, a Vermont spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said he was under the impression that the freeze wouldn’t impact open Vermont jobs, which include various transportation security officers.
“It is my understanding that military, national security and public safety jobs will not be affected,” Brant said. “I would think the CBP jobs would fall under the national security exemption.”
A press officer at the Departments of Treasury said they couldn’t publicly comment on the freeze, citing uncertainty about what specific jobs had been frozen.
Andy Lacasse, a spokesman at the VA hospital in White River Junction said Tuesday morning that the hospital was taken aback by the news. He added that employees in the Human Resources department were distressed by the freeze, and were scrambling to figure out the next steps.
The 13 Vermont VA job openings online include a number of significant positions, including for a psychologist to be Deputy for Research on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at the National Center for PTSD, which is located in White River Junction. Other open VA jobs include a blood bank technologist, a vocational rehab counselor and an anesthesiologist.
Late Tuesday, the VA’s Lacasse declined to discuss specific job freezes, instead saying “Our focus remains on providing the best care possible to the veterans we serve.”
The Trump order only applies to vacant positions existing at noon on Sunday, so recently approved hires are not subject to the order.
A member of the Vermont division of the Federal Highway Administration — which is composed of 13 employees — said Tuesday that his agency hired a new highway engineer shortly before the order was announced.
“We got a new engineer right before the inauguration,” said the FHA employee, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
