Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hi Everyone,

This has been another week where decades happen. Apologies for omitting state-and-local stories; if I have a moment next week I’ll try and do a roundup for you. But this edition of the Digest is focused exclusively on unpacking the sweeping changes the nascent Trump administration is effecting across the federal workforce through executive orders and agency memoranda. I’ve grouped these efforts into broad categories for you which should give you a sense of the week’s major stories. (Additionally, I’ve circled back to two of the items I highlighted briefly in the introduction to last week’s Digest before I shifted my focus to the federal hiring freeze.)

Stay strong and stay in touch.

Solidarity,

Sam

OMB Spending “Pause”

On January 27th, OMB circulated an internal memo (available through the Washington Post) to the heads of all Executive Departments and Agencies, requiring that "each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs [… and i]n the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal."*

As we're all aware, both governmental organizations at the state-and-local level and also civil society organizations include federal financing in their budgets, either directly or indirectly. This new policy from OMB may have a significant impact on finances across the public service legal space-which may in turn affect those organizations' ability to recruit and retain their staff. As a result, I’ve been monitoring the developing fate of this “pause” quite closely this week.

Here’s what’s happened to-date:

• Nonprofits and multiple states launched lawsuits challenging the spending “pause”.

• The district judge assigned the nonprofit lawsuit granted an administrative stay on the executive branch’s spending “pause” pending a full hearing on 3 Feb.

• OMB issued a statement rescinding its 27 Jan memo declaring the “spending pause”.

• The White House Press Secretary announced “This [OMB act] is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction.”

• The district judge assigned the states’ lawsuit “signaled he agreed the OMB’s rescission of its Monday night announcement did not moot the motion filed by 22 states and Washington, D.C.[: …] ‘[AG RI,] I think, has convinced me that that while the piece of paper may not exist, that there’s sufficient evidence that the defendants collectively are acting consistent with that directive[.]’”

“Fork in the Road” Deferred Resignation Plan

• “Fork in the Road: Deferred Resignation Email to Federal Employees” (OPM Webpage; 28 Jan 25)

  • “Fork in the Road” FAQ (OPM Webpage; 30 Jan 25)

    “The federal workforce is expected to undergo significant near-term changes. As a result of these changes (or for other reasons), you may wish to depart the federal government on terms that provide you with sufficient time and economic security to plan for your future-and have a nice vacation.”

• “Guidance Regarding Deferred Resignation Program” (OPM Memo; 28 Jan 25)

• Federal Workers Urged To Reject Trump Buyout (Newsweek; 29 Jan 25)

  The president has no authority to make that offer," Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine said on the Senate floor Tuesday. "There's no budget line item to pay people who are not showing up for work.

Strategies for Terminating Federal Workers

• Probationary “Purge”

  • Guidance on Probationary Periods, Administrative Leave and Details (OPM Memo; 20 Jan 25)

    “Probationary periods are an essential tool for agencies to assess employee performance and manage staffing levels. Employees on probationary periods can be terminated during that period without triggering appeal rights to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). …No later than January 24, 2025, agencies should identify all employees on probationary periods, who have served less than a year in a competitive service appointment, or who have served less than two years in an excepted service appointment, and send a report to OPM listing all such employees[.]”

  • Probationary Federal Employees Targeted for Mass Purge (The American Prospect; 29 Jan 25)

    “Below is the copy of an email received by employees of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which was sent to people who “have been identified as an employee likely on a probationary/trial period.” It has been reported that agencies were asked to assemble lists of these newly hired employees. …”As a probationary/trial period employee, the agency has a right to immediately terminate you pursuant to 5 CFR § 315.804,” the email reads. It claims that the termination would occur immediately upon the employee receiving notice. The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents unionized EPA officials, sent an email to staffers, urging them to “Please do what you need to protect all of your information regarding your Federal employment … you need to download/print out all pertinent employment information such as your entire eOPF. Do this ASAP!””

• Reclassification

  • Guidance on Implementing President Trump’s Executive Order titled, “Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce” (OPM Memo; 27 Jan 25)

  • Trump administration targets wide range of positions for removing federal job protections (Fed News Network; 27 Jan 25)

    “In a memo published Monday morning, Office of Personnel Management Acting Director Charles Ezell detailed how agencies should move forward with implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order on “restoring accountability to policy-influencing positions within the federal workforce,” while also announcing the suspension of portions of the Biden administration’s regulations aiming to prevent a return of the Trump administration’s previous Schedule F policy. …Trump administration officials have stated that the purpose of reclassifying career federal employees in policy-related roles is a way to give agencies more flexibility, and to be able to remove employees who are not carrying out the president’s agenda. The number of federal employees the new guidance could impact is uncertain. Some have said tens of thousands of feds could be reclassified, while other estimates put the number of impacted employees in the hundreds of thousands. Based on the language of the new memo, the Trump administration’s interpretation of “policy-influencing” positions appears to be relatively far-reaching, according to a source familiar with OPM policy and regulations who agreed to speak to Federal News Network on background. The source said the categories identified in the memo can be construed quite broadly — especially considering the memo’s encouragement for agencies to expand the interpretation further. Because of that, it’s likely the ultimate number of reclassified positions would reach the higher end of previous estimates. In an effort to prevent efforts similar to Schedule F from returning in a future administration, the Biden administration previously finalized regulations in April 2024 to reinforce civil service protections for career federal employees…The new memo from the Trump administration, however, described parts of the April 2024 final rule as “procedural obstacles,” and changed the interpretation of the rule to say “policy-influencing” roles do cover career federal employees. OPM’s memo pointed to certain portions of the final regulations that were issued under the authority of the president, saying that Trump’s executive order “immediately superseded” those portions of the final regulations.

    The Trump administration’s guidance said the Merit Systems Protection Board cannot hear appeals of career federal employees who are reclassified, due to the same interpretations of the regulations. The memo also rescinded the Biden administration’s OPM guidance on its final rule reinforcing civil service protections. “Despite this declaration, federal employees who are affected by reclassification should consult with a federal employment attorney on their legal rights,” the Alden Law Group, a federal employment law firm, wrote in a blog post Monday.”

  • CREW, Democracy Forward sue to block Trump’s illegal plan to fire government workers (CREW Press Release; 28 Jan 25)

    “President Trump’s executive order paving the way to convert potentially tens of thousands of merit-based civil servants to at-will employees, enabling political appointees to fire and replace them with loyalists, is unlawful and exceeds the president’s authority, according to a lawsuit filed today in Maryland federal court by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). PEER is represented in the suit by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Democracy Forward.”

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Environmental Justice

• “Initial Guidance Regarding DEIA Executive Orders” (OPM Memo; 21 Jan 25)

• “Guidance Regarding RIFs [Reduction-in-Force] of DEIA Offices” (OPM Memo; 24 Jan 25)

  “In accordance with that order, each agency, department, or commission head shall take action to terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” offices and positions within sixty days” [emphasis added] “However, agencies can and should begin issuing RIF notices to employees of DEIA offices now.” [emphasis added]

• “Initial Guidance Regarding President Trump’s Executive Order Defending Women” (OPM Memo; 29 Jan 25) [2 pages long]

  “In light of Defending Women, each agency should take prompt actions to end all agency programs that use taxpayer money to promote or reflect gender ideology as defined in Section 2(f) of Defending Women. Specifically, agency heads should take the following steps…[n]o later than 5:00pm EST on Friday, January 31 2025:… Review all agency position descriptions and send a notification to all employees whose position description involves inculcating or promoting gender ideology that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all initiatives, offices, and programs that inculcate or promote gender ideology.”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public!

The biggest public service news this week concerns sweeping actions taken by the new Presidential administration via Executive Order. A number of executive actions have profound implications for hiring and recruitment news, including an order “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” (w/accompanying OPM Guidance) and OPM guidance directing agencies to “identify all employees on probationary periods, who have served less than a year in a competitive service appointment, or who have served less than two years in an excepted service appointment[] and send a report to OPM listing all such employees,” and noting that “[e]mployees on probationary periods can be terminated during that period without triggering appeal rights to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).“

Having called your attention to these two already, I want to focus on the policy that seems to have created the most immediate concern and uncertainty for our community: the new federal “hiring freeze”. To help you think through this issue I have curated the following resources and breaking news into a narrative for you. You’ll find some news on other topics of concern this week further down in the Digest.

Solidarity,

Sam

Editorial Focus: The 2025 Federal “Hiring Freeze”

Authority (Written, Public):

On 20 Jan, Pres. Trump issued a Presidential Action titled “Hiring Freeze”. In this action, he ordered “a freeze on the hiring of Federal civilian employees[; …] no Federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on January 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created except as otherwise provided for in this memorandum or other applicable law.” [emphasis added] In a 20 Jan memo providing guidance on this order, the acting directors of OMB and OPM clarified that the freeze encompasses “all types of Federal civilian appointments, regardless of the length of the appointment.” [emphasis added]

Historical Context: The 2017 Hiring Freeze – Similarities and Key Differences

These documents appear to broadly mirror similar action taken by the first Trump administration in January 2017.¹ (Government Executive discussed the long-term impacts of that policy on 20 Jan.) Importantly, as in 2017 the current “freeze” also includes guidance directing agencies to revoke employment offers to hires that do not have a scheduled start prior to a specific deadline (in 2025, the relevant cutoff is 8 Feb).

However, two things seem notably different this time: (1) 2025 OPM/OMB guidance was issued the same day as the Presidential Action and (2) the 2025 Guidance includes clearer lines of communication for agency staff with further questions.² While in 2017 we saw a slight thawing of the hiring freeze after a week of confusion (between the Presidential announcement and the agency guidance), these differences suggest that agencies implementing this hiring freeze in its initial days already have the information they need. Without confusion, evidence is emerging that they are acting more broadly than they did under the first Trump administration under similar (written, public) directions.

Happening Now

Initial (Anonymous) Reports of Rescinded Paid Internship Offers Suggest Broad Application of OMB/OPM Guidance 

Anonymously in social media posts on 22 Jan and 23 Jan, some people shared that their pathways internships have been revoked as a result of this freeze. These reports, if credible, suggest that some agencies are interpreting this order very broadly. (According to OMB/OPM’s 20 Jan guidance, “[a]ppointments made prior to January 20, 2025, under the Pathways Internship…program [are permitted an exemption to the Federal civilian hiring freeze].”) 

Additional (Unattributed) Reports of Rescinded Unpaid Internship Offers Suggest Freeze Action Broader than Directed 

I’ve also heard some reports on background that agencies are shuttering their unpaid internship programs. Unpaid interns are not typically understood as either “federal employees” (under federal statute)³ or “federal appointees” (under OPM policy).⁴ It seems that some agencies are freezing hiring for volunteer placements that do not appear directly implicated by the written policies that instigated the freeze.

Potential Next Steps

I’ve heard from some people that applicants and recent hires have been attempting to contact agencies for more information. It’s worth noting that Government Executive reported on 22 Jan that “[OPM and OMB said] any correspondence with prospective applicants must cease” (it’s difficult to say whether these instructions include applicants at all stages of the hiring process or prospective hires; I wasn’t able to find a publicly available source for this language).

Under the circumstances, applicants and prospective hires for federal positions may want to consider reaching out to their congressional representative with a constituent service request asking for help getting clarity about their specific circumstances. The Congressional Research Service’s coverage of constituent services suggests that while no congressmember is obligated to mediate with federal agencies to help constituents answer questions (see CRS IF10503), “[c]ommon requests for [constituent services] casework involve…obtaining a missing record…from a government agency” (CRS R44726). Further, CRS provides congressmembers with sample language suggesting they inform constituents that “[a]lthough we cannot force an agency to expedite your case or act in your favor, we can frequently intervene to facilitate the processes involved, encourage an agency to give your case consideration, and sometimes advocate for a favorable outcome” (CRS RL33209) (I wouldn’t suggest that “a favorable outcome” here could be that a position would be reinstated, but an agency might be urged to discuss an individual’s case in greater detail, apply to OPM for an exemption from the hiring freeze policy, or reconsider its latitude under existing rules.)

Other News

Student Loans & Student Debt

• Fixing the Student Loan Crisis Starts With Defending the Department of Education (The Nation; 24 Jan 2025)

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• Dems say thwarting Trump’s controversial OMB pick is a top priority (Government Executive; 23 Jan 2025)
• Federal worker advocates file legal challenges to DOGE, Schedule F (FedScoop; 22 Jan 2025)
• Trump accelerates campaign to remake federal bureaucracy (Reuters; 23 Jan 2025)
• Broad exemptions to Trump’s federal hiring freeze begin to take shape (Government Executive; 22 Jan 2025)
• Justice Dept. Cancels Entry-Level Job Offers in Honors Program (New York Times; 23 Jan 2025)
  • Trump hiring freeze hits law students headed to the U.S. Justice Department (Reuters; 23 Jan 2025)
• Government Attorneys Face Reassignment, Rescinded Job Offers in First Days of Trump Administration (National Law Journal; 24 Jan 2025)
• Layoffs loom as Trump administration orders leave for federal DEI workers (Washington Post; 22 Jan 2025)
  • OPM Guidance (21 Jan 2025)
  • Federal workers placed on leave by Trump’s DEI order are angry and fearful of what lies ahead (NBC News; 23 Jan 2025)
  • DOJ Memo Warns Staff of ‘Adverse Consequences’ Over DEI Programs (Bloomberg News; 22 Jan 2025)
• What Employers and Nonprofits Should Know About Trump’s Executive Order Banning Diversity Preferences (Arent Fox Shiff; 23 Jan 2025)
• White House wants details on new federal employees by Friday (Reuters; 21 Jan 2025)
  • OPM Guidance (20 Jan 2025)
• Trump’s DEI Scrutiny Coming to Bar Associations, Law Schools (Bloomberg Law; 22 Jan 2025)
  • Trump Takes Aim at DEI in Higher Ed (Inside Higher Ed; 23 Jan 2025)
• [NH] Governor Ayotte Institutes State Hiring Freeze (Office of the NH Governor; 22 Jan 2025)

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• Legal Aid Ontario has a surplus worth millions. Meanwhile, many lower-income Ontarians can’t access it (CBC; 24 Jan 2024)

Access to Justice – Criminal

• Bill would expand access to Virginia public defenders, increase prosecutors’ workload (The Daily Item; 23 Jan 2025)
  ____________________________________________
  1. In his Hiring Freeze Memo of 23 Jan 2017, President Trump ordered “a freeze on the hiring of Federal civilian employees[; …] no vacant positions existing at noon on January 22, 2017, may be filled…” [emphasis added] In a 31 Jan memo providing guidance on that order, the acting directors of OMB and OPM clarified that the freeze encompassed “all types of Federal civilian appointments, regardless of the length of the appointment.” [emphasis added] 
  2. The 2025 OMB/OPM memo’s “Inquires” section includes the specific email addresses to which inquiries (by agency staff, not the public) should be sent, whereas in 2017 the same section merely stated that inquiries (by agency staff, not the public) should be sent to “contacts provided to Chief Human Capital Officers and HR Directors”. 
  3. Unpaid interns are not considered “federal employees” except in limited (non-applicable) circumstances (cf. 5 USC s.3111(c)(1)). 
  4. An “appointment” is a term of art in the OPM Guide to Processing Personnel Actions, including “[a]ny personnel action that brings an individual onto the rolls (staff) of an agency.” The term seems to include paid interns, but not unpaid ones. For example, according to the Pathways Programs Handbook (2016), “Pathways appointments are subject to the same requirements governing term, career or career-conditional appointment.” On the other hand, the OPM Guide to Processing Personnel Actions states that “[v]olunteers do not receive Federal appointments“.

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello, interested public! Apologies for returning a week later than I’d anticipated. It’s good to be back. So much is happening right now–or anticipated. It’s been difficult to cull the news down to a digestible size for you all, but I’ve done my best below. Beyond the Editor’s Choices, I’ll note that US DOJ employees (in two divisions) just voted to unionize for the first time in history, that many state supreme court chief justices addressed access to justice or indigent defense issues in their annual remarks, and that remarks made by Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee for OMB Chief, are getting a lot of attention. As always, these stories and more are in the links below.

Take care,

Sam

Editor’s Choice(s)

• The Great Nonprofit Downsizing (The Chronicle of Philanthropy; 14 Jan 2025)

  • Non-profits around the nation face funding shortages (WHSV; 16 Jan 2025)

• Trump says he will create an ‘External Revenue Service’ agency to collect tariff income (Federal News Network; 15 Jan 2025)

• US Attorneys Out, Allies in: Trump Said to Plan Quick Swaps (Bloomberg Law; 15 Jan 2025)

• Student Loan Forgiveness Tracking For IDR Goes Live — 4 Steps To Take Now (Forbes; 14 Jan 2025)

  …this week, the department formally published detailed IDR tracking information for every borrower, allowing them to know exactly where they are on their student loan forgiveness timeline. …Once logged in, your IDR tracker should be visible on your StudentAid.gov dashboard. The tracker will show the number of IDR payments made so far, and the number of IDR payments remaining before the borrower would qualify for loan forgiveness. …Just like with PSLF, it's a good idea to retain records of your IDR loan forgiveness progress reflected in the tracker. While you may never need them, if something happens to your account, or features on the website subsequently change, it may be important to have a record of the information that is displayed. The easiest way to keep records of your IDR loan forgiveness tracker would be via screenshots or converting the webpages into PDF images.

Student Loans & Student Debt

• Supreme Court to Review Biden’s Borrower Defense Rule (Inside Higher Ed; 13 Jan 2025)

• Biden announces final round of student loan forgiveness, bringing aid total to nearly $189 billion (CNBC; 16 Jan 2025)

• US student debt ends Biden era bigger than when he took office (Yahoo! Finance; 17 Jan 2025)

• Student Loan Borrowers: How Linda McMahon's Appointment Impacts You (Investopedia.com; 13 Jan 2025)

• 8 Million Student Loan Borrowers Will Have No Payments For Most Of 2025, As Loan Forgiveness Remains Stalled (Forbes; 16 Jan 2025)

Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring

• DOJ trial attorneys vote to form its first known unions (ABA Journal; 14 Jan 2025)

• I’m a Federal Employee. This Is What We Need Most in the Trump Era. [opinion] (New York Times; 12 Jan 2025)

• Connecticut nonprofits request more funding for programs (WTNH News8; 14 Jan 2025)

• Office of Special Counsel has ‘growing staffing concerns’ amid record caseload (Federal News Network; 14 Jan 2025)

• Congressional Republicans dial up multiple bills to cull telework flexibility (Government Executive; 15 Jan 2025)

• Trump’s second term agenda includes cutting ‘slackers’ from federal workforce, former OMB official says (Federal News Network; 14 Jan 2025)

  • Trump’s pick for OMB chief defends removing civil service protections, withholding appropriated funds (Government Executive; 15 Jan 2025)

  • The civil service system is a barrier to effective talent management [opinion] (Government Executive; 17 Jan 2025)

Access to Justice – Civil & Economic

• New data shows how ‘rage giving’ boosted immigrant-serving nonprofits during the first Trump Administration (UC Santa Cruz; 13 Jan 2025)

• Kansas justice warns of ‘all-out crisis’ [in access to legal services] (The Iola Register; 16 Jan 2025)

• Texas Supreme Court to decide legal battle over El Paso migrant shelter’s future (Texas Tribune; 13 Jan 2025)

• Incentivizing Attorneys to Work in the ‘Legal Deserts’ of Rural America (ABA The Young Lawyer; 13 Jan 2025)

• The U.S. Needs A National Immigration Legal Defense Fund [opinion] (Above the Law; 14 Jan 2025)

• CT ‘right to counsel’ helped thousands stay housed; saved state $36M (CT Mirror; 15 Jan 2025)

• ‘Kept in limbo:’ As uncertainty over Trump plans looms, migrant children struggle to find legal aid (InvestigativeWest; 15 Jan 2025)

• Potential changes to Legal Aid Alberta funding source raises alarm among non-profits (The Canadian Press; 15 Jan 2025)

  • Province looks to double Alberta Law Foundation's contribution to Legal Aid Alberta (Edmonton Journal; 15 Jan 2025)

• [IN] Gov. Braun closes DEI office, mandates return-to-work in slew of executive orders (Indianapolis Star; 15 Jan 2025)

• West Virginia Governor Bans DEI by Executive Order (Inside Higher Ed; 15 Jan 2025)

• Funding Issues Threaten Future of Legal Aid (Action News Jacksonville [FL]; 16 Jan 2025)

• How is NYC prepping for stepped-up deportations under Trump? (Gothamist; 16 Jan 2025)

Access to Justice – Criminal

• Idaho Supreme Court must intervene in new, 'disastrous' public defense reform, ACLU says (Idaho Statesman; 5 Jan 2025)

• Legislative budget proposes $7 million cut to Kansas public defenders, despite shortage (Kansas Reflector; 15 Jan 2025)

• LA County’s innovative effort to address public defender conflicts wins plaudits (California Lawyer; 13 Jan 2025)

• Rural Texas needs more public defenders. A state commission wants nearly $44M to help (NPR; 13 Jan 2025)

• Port: Indigent defense in North Dakota 'perilously close to a constitutional failure' [opinion] (IN Forum; 13 Jan 2025)

• Iowa chief justice urges magistrate system changes, work to address public defender shortage (Quad-City Times; 15 Jan 2025)

• Chief justice says SD would benefit from expanding its new criminal public defense office (South Dakota Searchlight; 15 Jan 2025)

• Opinion: DA Vasquez is right. The public defense ‘crisis’ is a work stoppage (The Oregonian; 15 Jan 2025)

• [Los Angeles CA] Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman hires new special prosecutor for police misconduct (Los Angeles Times; 16 Jan 2025)

• Public defenders argue their own case (Rochester [NY] Beacon; 16 Jan 2025)

• [Stuben] County [IN] keeps plugging away at public defender expansion (The Herald Republican; 16 Jan 2025)