Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has signed a slew of executive orders, including initiating a hiring freeze, mass terminations of federal workers and a sweeping freeze on federal funding for government agencies and nonprofits.
The orders for a hiring freeze and “reductions in force” have resulted in thousands of firings and layoffs across all government agencies, including the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and NASA. Trump said the Environmental Protection Agency will slash 65% of its workforce.
On Feb. 24, the United States Office of Special Counsel, a government oversight agency, found the mass terminations to be unlawful, ruling in favor of the civil servants from 19 federal agencies who filed legal complaints. However, the executive orders are still in place.
The hiring freeze impacts college students as well.
A Tulane University sophomore, who chose to remain anonymous, had a State Department internship lined up for this summer that was canceled with the executive orders. Now, she is not sure what is next. The sophomore said she knows of other students who have had their internship offers revoked, as well.
Another sophomore student lost an internship with the U.S. Department of Justice. She received an email informing her that the department “had to shut down their summer intern program and revoke all offers made throughout the Civil Rights Division.” She learned the new administration froze the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ entirely.
Andrew Ward, an instructor of political science at Tulane, said many students get involved with nonprofit organizations and charities for their service learning credits. “Those organizations are utterly reliant upon funding from the federal government,” Ward said. “But now, by executive order, so much of that is frozen.”
“Decreased funding, mass layoffs and general incompetence … will wreak havoc on opportunities to work with the federal government,” Scott Nolan, political science professor of practice, said. “I would describe the opportunities to work with the federal [government as] low to nonexistent.”
To students who are interested in working in government, NGOs or nonprofits, Nolan recommends students get a graduate degree, avoid debt, budget and “take nothing for granted.”
“I no longer consider the federal government a reliable and healthy place to work,” Nolan said. Many of his students are searching for alternatives, such as opportunities with international organizations, state and local positions or going straight to law school rather than taking a job beforehand.
The federal United States Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum on Jan. 27 that called for a freeze on all funding of agencies and organizations that rely on federal financing. The memo specified “financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology and the green new deal.” Federal assistance refers to any grants, loans, loan guarantees or insurance.
The order caused immediate, widespread panic in NGOs and nonprofits throughout the country. Federal funding is the second-largest source of income for nonprofits, making up 33% of their revenue.
“10% of the American workforce works in the nonprofit community,” Ward said. “The majority of them are severely threatened, not only the people that work within those nonprofit organizations, but everybody who benefits from them.”
A freeze in federal funding threatens services like food stamps, refugee resettlement, natural disaster recovery and veteran and mental health programs, as well as “everything from the Department of Education and public schools and upholding things like Title IX … [and] protections for LGBTQIA populations,” Ward said.
On Jan. 28, The National Council of Nonprofits filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, demanding a halt on the implementation of the OMB’s Jan. 27 memorandum. They argued that the order not only exceeded the OMB’s authority but violated the freedoms of speech and association guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The District of Columbia and 22 states also filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. The OMB released a second memo just two days after the first one to rescind it, but it was too late.
U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan ordered a temporary restraining order on the funding freeze and wrote a 30-page opinion, reminding the president that “the appropriation of the government’s resources is reserved for Congress,” not the executive branch. “It [the OMD] attempted to wrest the power of the purse away from the only branch of government entitled to wield it,” she wrote.
Ward reminds students of the importance of taking action. “We are here because of apathy, complacency and collaboration,” he said. Students should “be aware … pool their knowledge resources, form a united front … [and] make sure that you can get the right candidates into office to oppose strategies like this.”
“This country is in for a very bumpy ride in the years ahead,” Nolan said.
