Hiring Decisions In Trump Administration Reflect A Focus On Border Control, Veterans
An analysis by The Wall Street Journal shows that the Department of Veterans Affairs leads the cabinet agencies in average yearly growth. Hiring practices can often highlight the broader priorities of an administration. Under the Obama administration, for example, CMS saw its workforce expand more than 44% as the government implemented the Affordable Care Act.
The Wall Street Journal:
Trump’s Federal Hiring Emphasizes Border Control, Veterans, Military
The White House has reshaped the federal workforce to advance President Trump’s priorities, emphasizing border control, veterans and the military while shrinking the size of the education, labor and housing-and-urban-development agencies, an analysis by The Wall Street Journal shows. Compared with the political difficulties of the federal-budget process, strategic hiring is a quieter way to advance a presidential policy agenda and a practice employed by all White Houses to varying degrees. (Butchireddygari, 10/7)
Other news on the administration looks at rainbow-colored crosswalks and worker safety —
The New York Times:
The Government Says Rainbow Crosswalks Could Be Unsafe. Are They Really?
Ahead of an annual L.G.B.T.Q. festival in Ames, Iowa, members of the City Council decided to liven up a pedestrian crosswalk near the downtown shopping district by painting stripes in colors evoking the gay, nonbinary and transgender pride flags. “Who would have thought, 50 years ago, that a small town in central Iowa would be saying this: We see you, we hear you, we welcome you,” Reginald Stewart, vice president for diversity and inclusion at Iowa State University, said of the kaleidoscopic markings. (Rueb, 10/7)
NPR:
Lawmakers Seek Protections For Workers Against Lung Damage Tied To Making Countertops
Lawmakers in Congress are calling on the Department of Labor to do more to protect workers who may be unsafely cutting "engineered stone" used for countertops. The material contains high levels of the mineral silica, and breathing in silica dust is dangerous. While silica is found in natural stones, like granite, engineered stone made of quartz can be more than 90% silica. This type of artificial stone has become increasingly popular among Americans for kitchen and bathroom countertops in recent years. (Greenfieldboyce, 10/7)
