President Trump orders hiring freeze on federal positions, including IRS openings
KXAN (AUSTIN) -- President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders following his inauguration on Monday, including a freeze on hiring federal workers except for positions related to immigration enforcement, national security and public safety.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is included in the agencies that would not be able to bring in new employees. The federal government’s official employment site, USAJOBS, shows the IRS has hundreds of vacancies it had been looking to fill.
A 2025 report from the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the IRS, found continuing challenges with employee recruitment, hiring, and retention hinder the agency. The report also suggested continuing delays in IRS return processing are frustrating taxpayers and causing refund delays.
The president's “America First Priorities” list provides some insight into why he ordered the freeze. In the list posted on Jan. 20, his office wrote “[Trump] will freeze bureaucrat hiring except in essential areas to end the onslaught of useless and overpaid DEI activists buried in the federal workforce.”
The president's executive order is expected to last at least 90 days for all federal agencies, except the IRS. Trump ordered the freeze to remain in effect for the IRS until the Treasury Secretary determines it is of national interest to lift the order.
Trump also ordered the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, to submit a plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce before mid-April.