Tax Notes, Federal Hiring Freeze Quickly Hits Prospective IRS Attorneys:
Graduate students who accepted offers to work at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel have begun seeing those offers rescinded following the freeze on federal hiring, according to professors.
President Trump on January 20 signed an executive order halting all federal hiring and specifying that the IRS shouldn’t begin hiring again until Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget determine that “it is in the national interest to lift the freeze.”
The order has already hit law school students who were expecting to join the agency, several law professors told Tax Notes. …
Ted Afield of Georgia State University College of Law said that all his students with existing offers to work at the Office of Chief Counsel saw them rescinded following Trump’s inauguration, leaving them with little time to find new positions. …
According to Leslie Book of Villanova University’s Charles Widger School of Law, who has also seen his students affected by the IRS hiring freeze, Trump’s order sends the wrong message to current employees and those who expect the IRS to hire talented people.
“At a time when the IRS — and all of government — needs talented, dedicated employees, this blunt tool is likely to have an outsized impact, not only on the students whose lives have been upended, but all of us who benefit from a talented and dedicated IRS workforce,” Book said.
Bloomberg Law, Trump Federal Hiring Freeze Scuttles Job Offers for Law Students:
President Donald Trump’s hiring freeze is preventing students specializing in public service law from getting federal jobs.
The IRS has canceled job offers for at least four students at Georgia State University’s law school because of the freeze, the associate dean, Ted Afield, said in an interview. At least six job offers were rescinded from law students at William & Mary Law School for the Justice Department and IRS, school dean Benjamin Spencer said. …
Trump imposed the freeze for 90 days until the Office of Management and Budget and other agencies issue a plan to cut the federal workforce “through efficiency improvements and attrition,” according to the order. The IRS freeze will continue after 90 days unless administration officials determine “it is in the national interest” to lift it.
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