Merit-plan order added presidential-policy alignment to federal hiring screens
Reporting and findings
- reported
Economic Policy Institute's review describes the hiring order as adding ideological or loyalty-oriented screening to civil-service recruitment and analyzes the risk to a nonpartisan workforce; it is not a finding that every hire was politically selected.
- Economic Policy Institute: 100 ways Trump has hurt workers in his first 100 daysFederal hiring and civil-service politicization discussion
- documented
On 2025-01-20, Donald Trump directed development of a federal hiring plan emphasizing merit, efficiency, and commitment to the Constitution and laws, while barring hiring based on race, sex, or religion.
Corrects claim:batch-200:federal-hiring-merit-plan-2025- The White House: Reforming The Federal Hiring Process And Restoring Merit To Government ServiceOperative text of the cited action
Summary and current status
The hiring plan combined ordinary qualifications language with a screen for commitment to administration policy. Civil-service analysts treated that addition as a politicization risk, not proof about any applicant.
Hiring-plan directives moved into agency guidance alongside broader workforce controls.
People and organizations
- Reforming The Federal Hiring Process And Restoring Merit To Government Serviceexecutive action under legal and impact review
- Donald J. Trumppresident who issued the action
Relationships in this file
- Donald J. Trumpordered federal hiring rewrite throughReforming The Federal Hiring Process And Restoring Merit To Government Service