Warren, Warner, Kim Reveal that After Trump Hiring Freeze, Treasury Has Halted Hiring and Rescinded Job Offers of National Security Officials in the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
Trump Administration Failed to Implement National Security Exemption from Hiring Freeze – Jeopardizing our Economic and National Security
Washington, D.C. – In response to an oversight request made by U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and Committee members Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Andy Kim (D-NJ), the Department of the Treasury confirmed that, after President Trump’s January 20 hiring freeze, it halted the hiring process and rescinded job offers for numerous employees responsible for protecting our national security in the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI). The Department also revealed that it has not yet resumed hiring, failing to implement critical national security exemptions from the hiring freeze.
“Instead of hiring key national security personnel, Treasury appears to be following directives from Elon Musk’s DOGE to leave key positions unfilled, threatening the Department’s mission to keep the American people safe,” said Senator Warren, in response to the new information.
The Department wrote that it had taken across-the-board action to freeze hiring: “In accordance with OPM and OMB guidance, on January 20, 2025, Treasury instituted a hiring freeze across the Department, to include TFI. Treasury rescinded all job offers for persons that did not have an onboarding date or were scheduled to start after February 8, 2025.”
Treasury also made clear that – almost two months into the Trump Administration – it had not yet exercised authorities to exempt national security professionals from these blanket cuts, writing: “Treasury has begun working through a process to utilize the national security exemption for employees in TFI, and other national security functions within the department, where appropriate. Additionally, where a clear exemption from the hiring freeze exists, Treasury has begun a deliberate process of assessing continued interest by candidates to pursue job opportunities within Treasury.”
Treasury’s delays in developing a coherent plan for hiring national security professionals is particularly concerning given the shortages the Department described just last year. In its Fiscal Year 2025 budget justification to Congress, Treasury made clear that it needed additional personnel to meet basic national security needs. For example, Treasury highlighted needs across:
- The Sanctions Economic Analysis Unit: “Without adequate staffing for the Unit and with growing unsustainable workloads, a lack of funding for this initiative will compromise the ability to effectively respond to sanctions-related taskings from the Department’s senior leadership and elsewhere in the Federal Government.”
- An interagency economic security and financial intelligence effort: “Without this initiative, [the Office of Intelligence Analysis, OIA] will have an inability to augment analytic resources for sustained coverage on the economic impacts of U.S. sanctions, and it will degrade their ability to provide timely intelligence analysis and support to Treasury and other critical Federal Government policymakers.”
- Meeting demands for action on China: “This investment would allow OIA to cover China’s macroeconomy, key economic sectors, and international financial connections, as well as further develop OIA’s analysis on China’s influence across the globe. . . . Without this investment, OIA will be unable to fully meet intelligence analysis demand on macroeconomic analysis on China’s domestic challenges or risks to the global economy.”
- Cybersecurity efforts: “Without this funding, Treasury risks having an insufficient number of licenses for its users to access and the system’s access to [the Treasury Foreign Intelligence Network, TFIN] will not meet the anticipated customer set, and TFIN will also be non-compliant with the new mandatory cybersecurity requirements.”
Despite these clear needs, Treasury has not only fallen short of accelerating its hiring but actually halted the hiring process, rescinded offers to national security professionals, and failed to implement a sensible plan for allowing that hiring to go forward. These reckless actions jeopardize our economic and national security at a critical time when we face global challenges from countries like China and Russia as well as terrorist financing, drug trafficking, sanctions evasion, and a broad range of other threats.
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