Halt CIA hiring immediately to prevent burrowing in
What the document says“This includes halting all current hiring to prevent the “burrowing in” of outgoing political personnel.”
The chapter asks that the President-elect choose a Deputy Director who needs no Senate confirmation and can begin implementing the President's agenda immediately, including by halting all current hiring so that outgoing political personnel cannot convert into permanent posts. It says additional appointees should be placed in the agency as needed.
What the document actually says“This includes halting all current hiring to prevent the “burrowing in” of outgoing political personnel.”
That means stopping all hiring at once. It keeps the last team from digging in.
When a president leaves, some of his staff seek permanent jobs. Those jobs are hard to remove people from. The book says hiring should stop at once.
Hiring Freeze
2025-01-20 · 90 FR 8247
The memorandum of January 20, 2025 freezes the hiring of federal civilian employees throughout the executive branch from noon that day, so that no position vacant at that moment may be filled and no new position created, whatever the source of an agency's funding. That is a day one halt on hiring into vacant career posts, the route by which the chapter says outgoing political personnel burrow in. Three things break the fit. The freeze does not apply to positions related to national security, which covers much of the agency the chapter is writing about. It expressly does not limit the appointment of noncareer officials. And it names no intelligence agency, being an instruction from the President to all agencies rather than a step taken by the Deputy Director the chapter would have act.
The memo freezes the hiring of civilian staff across the government from noon on day one. No open job may be filled and no new job made. That is the day one halt the book asked for. But jobs tied to national security are exempt. That covers much of the spy agency the book means. Political hires are still free, and no spy agency is named.