After taking an ax to the federal government workforce in its opening months, the Trump Administration is planning some new hiring. It’s using what it calls a “Merit Hiring Plan,” which one leading Democratic Congressman is calling a “blatant loyalty test.”
According to Newsweek, which cited a memo from Vince Haley, the White House’s head of domestic policy, “all civil service applicants must answer a series of essays as part of the job recruitment process,” and one of them entails how they will help to advance President Trump’s policies.
🇺🇸 Trump admin seeks ‘Patriotic Americans’ in new hiring initiative
“overly complex federal hiring system [and] overemphasized discriminatory ‘equity’ quotas and too often resulted in the hiring of unfit, unskilled bureaucratshttps://t.co/KGrh6XJ98X— DailyJobCuts . com – Layoffs / Job / Economy News (@dailyjobcuts) May 31, 2025
The “Merit Hiring Plan” for filling civil service jobs includes requiring some applicants to “write four 200-word essays about their work ethic, skills, and experience, commitment to the Constitution, and plans to ‘advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities,'” Newsweek said.
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One of the essay questions asks applicants to “identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, has written a letter calling on the Trump Administration to rescind that part of the hiring plan. The Government Executive publication obtained the letter.
“Such a loyalty test is antithetical to the concept of an expert, nonpartisan civil service and will only serve to degrade and politicize the services Americans need from their government,” Rep. Lynch, the committee’s acting ranking member, wrote in the letter. “I urge you to remove this question from any potential application materials for those seeking to serve their country through federal jobs and to provide documentation on how this ill-advised question was formulated and included in the memorandum.”
Rep Stephen Lynch speaks to press without mincing words: This president and this administration, is dragging this country down, down, every single day in the eyes of the world. The people he has assembled in his administration are a goddamn disgrace… group of morons & buffoons. pic.twitter.com/FyUHsqBu7g
— J.Rudd (@jeffrudd31) June 3, 2025
Lynch, who is the acting top Democrat on Oversight following the recent passing of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who previously held that position, went on to note that federal workers take an oath to the Constitution, not to a president.
“The oath does not require federal workers to swear to protect and defend executive orders or policy initiatives. It does not require that workers have loyalty to a president or to a political party,” Lynch said in the letter.
The federal hiring freeze is scheduled to expire on July 15.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
