White House, agencies warn of hiring freezes without ‘anomalies’ to upcoming spending bill

The Biden administration is warning that without congressional intervention to boost spending in certain areas, many federal offices across government will be forced to cease hiring ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration. 

Congressional leaders have suggested in recent weeks that lawmakers will pass a stopgap continuing resolution to keep agencies afloat past the current Dec. 20 deadline, once again punting on year-long funding in favor of keeping spending levels flat at current levels. Needs at various agencies have fluctuated, however, and the administration has suggested they will have to take dramatic steps to rein in costs without additional funds. 

The Internal Revenue Service, for example, warned last week that absent congressional intervention it may have to stop hiring, compromising the significant progress it has made to backfill longstanding vacancies and grow its workforce. That is due to language Republican appropriators slipped into the prior CR that essentially froze $20 billion Congress previously provided IRS as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. The White House is now asking lawmakers to unfreeze that money, suggesting the language was erroneously included and would have devastating impacts for the agency and its efforts to ramp up revenue collection on wealthy tax cheats. 

“Our concern right now is that, because of this risk to the IRS and the uncertainty of it, the IRS is going to potentially have to make dramatic decisions about stopping hiring and starting to budget for a world in which they don't have the $20 billion,” Treasury Department Secretary Wally Adeyemo recently told reporters. 

The White House is requesting additional addendums to any CR, referred to as “anomalies” in federal budgeting language. It asked for the Federal Aviation Administration to be able to apportion enough funding to pay for salary increases and other obligations. 

“Without this anomaly, FAA would be unable to continue to hire and train air traffic controllers,” the White House said in its budget document, a copy of which was obtained by CQ. Like IRS, FAA is currently in the midst of a hiring surge it has said is necessary to keep pace with increased demand. 

All told, the Biden administration is requesting $24 billion in added funds to the CR. Separately, it is asking Congress for nearly $115 billion in emergency funding to aid in recovery efforts for hurricanes Helene, Milton and other storms. 

Officials at the Veterans Affairs Department have also cautioned that it will have to stop hiring health care and other staff if Congress does not address a shortfall in its budget. The White House is now seeking $6.6 billion to supplement its existing VA funding, down from a previous estimate but on top of $3 billion Congress provided earlier this year for veterans benefits.

The Veterans Health Administration significantly slowed hiring in 2024 and sought to keep its workforce in a steady state, but officials recently told Congress plans to grow in 2025 would be put on hold without additional funding. 

Former Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley told Government Executive just before he resigned his post last week that his agency would stop hiring without additional funds. The White House included SSA spending in its recent anomaly request. 

“We’re constantly trying to sprint up a downward escalator,” O’Malley said. “When Congress only gives us a three-month budget [at last year’s level] that’s effectively putting us in a position of a hiring freeze across much of the agency, with very limited ability to backfill against attrition.”

Even without the constraints of a stopgap funding bill, agencies across government have announced intentions to slash workforce costs to operate within a tightened budget environment. Under a bipartisan, two-year budget deal that President Biden negotiated last year with congressional Republicans, non-defense agencies are slated for a modest 1% boost in fiscal 2025. Appropriators have yet to agree to a top-line funding level despite that agreement, however, and Trump’s election and promise to slash funding could upend it. 

At the Justice Department, acting Executive Office for Immigration Review Director Mary Cheng told employees last month she was implementing an “onboarding freeze” through March 2025. 

The CR “means our agency funding levels remain the same as they were last fiscal year despite increased operation costs,” Cheng said in an email obtained by Government Executive. “This decision was not made lightly, but we unfortunately have no choice during this budget environment.”

She added she was hopeful the decision would enable EOIR, which houses the nation’s immigration courts, to avoid furloughs or layoffs in the future. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., confirmed from the floor Monday that Congress was likely to pursue a stopgap funding bill. 

“On government funding, both sides are making progress negotiating on a bill that will pass the House and Senate with bipartisan support,” Schumer said. “We need to keep divisive and unnecessary provisions out of any government funding extension or it will get harder to pass a CR in time. For now, I'm pleased negotiations are on the right track.”

Congressional leaders have not yet said how long a CR would last, though the White House estimated one would remain in place through February. 

Agencies that enter the Trump administration with hiring freezes in place may find themselves in holes from which it is difficult to dig out. President-elect Trump entered his first term with a governmentwide hiring freeze in place. Trump has not stated whether he will again freeze hiring upon entering office, though his team—including Office of Management and Budget Director-designate Russ Vought and the Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk-led government efficiency commission—has vowed to eliminate large swaths of federal jobs.