Freeze top career hiring to prevent burrowing-in
What the document says“What is needed at the beginning is a freeze on all top career-position hiring to prevent "burrowing-in" by outgoing political appointees.”
A freeze on all top career-position hiring at the start of an Administration, to stop outgoing political appointees converting into career positions. The chapter separately cautions that across-the-board hiring freezes and buyouts have not produced lasting reductions and can raise costs.
What the document actually says“What is needed at the beginning is a freeze on all top career-position hiring to prevent "burrowing-in" by outgoing political appointees.”
At the start, all hiring for top career jobs should stop. That keeps the last president's aides from digging in to stay.
When a president leaves, some of his aides try to move into permanent jobs. Those jobs are much harder to remove people from. The book calls this burrowing in. It says a new president should freeze hiring for top career jobs right away.
Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Workforce Optimization Initiative
2025-02-11 · 90 FR 9669
Limits hiring across agencies. The chapter proposed something narrower and differently aimed: a freeze on top career positions specifically, to stop outgoing political appointees converting into career jobs. The chapter separately warned that broad hiring freezes and buyouts have not produced lasting reductions and can raise costs.
The order limits hiring across agencies. The chapter asked for a narrower freeze, on top career posts only. Its aim was to stop leaving appointees from taking those jobs. The chapter also warned that broad freezes do not last and can cost more.
Ensuring Continued Accountability in Federal Hiring
2025-10-15 · 90 FR 48387
Continues government-wide hiring controls rather than the targeted freeze on top career positions that the chapter proposed.
The order keeps hiring controls in place across the government. The chapter asked for a freeze on top career jobs. The point was to stop outgoing political staff from settling in. A broad control is not that narrow freeze.
2 agency rules
- Changes to Geographical Jurisdictions and in Case Handling ProceduresFederal Labor Relations Authority · August 29, 2025
- Transfer of the Functions of the Tax Division to the Civil Division and the Criminal DivisionJustice Department · December 10, 2025
Each of these names the order above in its own summary, preamble or filing. That is a fact about the document, not a finding that it carries out this proposal: it is one step further away than the order is, and what it does about the proposal is a reading nobody has made here.