Subcommittee probes civilian hiring freezes and voluntary reductions for impact on readiness
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Summary
Service witnesses told the subcommittee that voluntary reduction programs and hiring freezes are creating uncertainty about civilian workforce levels; services are assessing reorganization options and said impacts on readiness and functions remain under review.
Ranking Member Houlihan told the panel she is ‘‘really concerned about what’s going on with our civilian personnel at DoD’’ and asked whether uniformed personnel are being asked to pick up additional duties created by vacancies.
Service witnesses said the civilian workforce is essential to readiness and confirmed substantial voluntary participation in the Delayed Resignation/Reduction Program (DRP) and that the services are assessing impacts and reorganizing where possible.
Lieutenant General Brian Eifler said the Army had about 16,000 sign up for the delayed-resignation program and that leaders were ‘‘in the analysis of looking at, okay, what's the impact?'' He said the Army had not yet had to implement cuts and was reexamining internal organization to close gaps. Vice Admiral Richard Cheeseman said about 10% of his enterprise took the DRP and said he was “very concerned about my force development pipeline, how it will affect the school houses, and how it will affect our pay systems going forward.” Lieutenant General Michael Borgschulte said approximately 1,600 Marine civilians took the DRP, and he described the Marine Corps as ‘‘lean’’ relative to other services with a roughly 9:1 ratio of Marines to civilian Marines.
Space Force Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Human Capital Catherine Kelly told the committee her service expects roughly a 10% loss of civilians through voluntary reductions and said the Space Force’s small size makes any civilian loss disproportionately difficult to absorb.
Witnesses described mitigation steps under way: internal reorganization, combining similar functions, and requesting exemptions for critical positions (childcare and recruiting roles were cited as frequently exempted). They said some employees had accepted voluntary reductions while many exemptions were processed to retain essential hires.
Members raised concern about second- and third-order effects, including whether uncertainty in the civilian workforce might later affect recruiting or create mission gaps. No witness gave a definitive tally of mission degradation; instead, all services said they were still assessing and expected to brief the committee on specific impacts.
The panel asked for follow-up briefings and data on which functions will be backfilled, what hiring exemptions were granted, and any readiness metrics tied to civilian vacancies. No formal votes or binding directives were recorded during this portion of the hearing.