State lifts hiring freeze

The new Secretary of State has lifted a hiring freeze at the department. (Photo credit: Sorbis/Shutterstock.com)

The Department of State is lifting a hiring freeze that has been in effect since the early days of the Trump administration.

"Today, I am lifting the Department's hiring freeze on Foreign Service and Civil Service and authorizing the Department of State to hire to current funding levels," newly installed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in an all-staff email obtained by FCW.

"The Department's workforce is our most valuable asset," Pompeo wrote. "We need our men and women on the ground, executing American diplomacy with great vigor and energy, and representing our great nation."

Pompeo was confirmed by the Senate on April 28. Before heading up State, Pompeo served the Trump administration as CIA director.

Pompeo's predecessor Rex Tillerson, who was fired in March, maintained a strict hiring freeze as part of a planned top-to-bottom "redesign" of the State Department. The Tillerson plan included massive headcount reductions to be achieved via buyouts and a 32 percent spending reduction.

Congress didn't go along with these drastic cuts and sparred with Tillerson about hiring issues, including whether to offer jobs to foreign service graduates whose education had been underwritten by federal government scholarships. Many lawmakers also objected to the slow pace of naming political appointees to senior State Department positions as well as filling vacant ambassador slots.