Shipyards, military clinics exempted from Pentagon hiring freeze

Defense Department leaders announced shipyards, depots and medical treatment facilities will be exempted from a department-wide hiring freeze because of their critical role in military readiness, in response to a growing outcry over the planned workforce reforms.

The issue of shipyard workers has become a rallying point for numerous advocates and lawmakers in recent days, especially after President Donald Trump vowed in his address to Congress earlier this month to establish a new office of shipbuilding within the White House in order to protect the industry.

Last week, sixteen Democratic lawmakers from districts with links to shipbuilding firms sent a note to the White House and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asserting the civilian defense employee hiring freeze had caused “chaos and uncertainty,” which in turn has hurt “the important growth that is needed at our shipyards.”

Pentagon leaders agreed. In a memo over the weekend, Hegseth clarified shipyard workers should be exempted from the hiring freeze, even as other areas see potential job cuts designed to “optimize our federal workforce, reduce inefficiencies, and align our resources with the president’s top national security priorities.”

Officials previously said critical needs areas would not be precluded from hiring vacant spots, but the new memo specifies shipyards, depots and military medical sites as among that group.

“DoD will only hire mission-essential employees into positions that directly contribute to our warfighting readiness,” the memo stated.

The news drew praise from both Republicans and Democrats, the latter of whom have been fiercely critical of the administration’s federal workforce cutbacks.

“I’m relieved that the administration heard our calls to protect jobs that are vital to national security at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and at shipyards across the country from ill-considered hiring freezes,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. and the second-ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

“While I’m glad that President Trump and Secretary Hegseth now understand our shipyard workforce to be an essential component of our national defense and preparedness, it should have never come to this in the first place. And the uncertainty that has swept through shipyards in the last two months has done real damage.”

White House officials have yet to announce specifics of the new office to oversee the shipbuilding industry. Several lawmakers have offered legislation to codify such an oversight agency, but it is not clear if those plans would align with Trump’s vision for the office.

Earlier this year, officials from the Congressional Budget Office said the Navy would need to spend more than $40 billion annually for 30 years for the service to fulfill its proposed plans to expand its battle force fleet.

There are currently 295 battle force ships in the fleet, with that number expected to drop to 283 ships by 2027 because of planned retirements. The service has stated it hopes to grow the fleet to 381 ships by 2054.

Defense Department officials have said that even with the exemptions, they plan to trim the civilian defense workforce by up to 8%, or 60,000 workers, in coming months, in keeping with broader administration plans to scale back the size of the federal bureaucracy.