DAYTON, OH (Dayton Daily News) — Among the many executive orders President Donald Trump issued in the past few days: a 90-day freeze on the hiring of federal government civilian employees.
What impact such a freeze might have on the Dayton area — home to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the Dayton VA Medical Center, the Springfield Air National Guard base and many other federal facilities — remains to be seen.
“I hereby order a freeze on the hiring of federal civilian employees, to be applied throughout the executive branch,” Trump’s executive order reads, issued as one of dozens of executive orders released as Trump began his second term, starting at noon Monday. “As part of this freeze, no federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on Jan. 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created except as otherwise provided for in this memorandum or other applicable law.”
The order does make an exception for military positions and openings tied to “national security.”
“This order does not apply to military personnel of the armed forces or to positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety,” the order says.
“It appears, reading the executive order, that those things will still be allowed,” said David Babcock, a retired Air Force chief master sergeant and president of the Dayton-area AFA (Air and Space Forces Association) Wright Memorial Chapter, a group of military retirees and citizens working to support the Air Force.
However, any impact on civilian job openings remains to be seen. Such a freeze “does affect the Dayton area somewhat,” Babcock said.
“It will definitely have a Wright-Patterson impact and the Dayton community, since our mission is critically important,” he said. “People are going to have to just step up until the dust settles.”
The hiring freeze is a significant step for federal employees working across the country, as more than 80% of the federal workforce operates outside the Washington, D.C., area, the Federal News Network reported Tuesday. Today, the federal government employs about 2.2 million career civil servants, the network said.
Michael Fallings, a partner at Tully Rinckey, a national law firm that practices in the areas of federal employment law and military law, said the orders might force some areas of the federal government to rely more on contractors.
“It is a big deal, but it’s been done before,” he said.
