FEBRUARY 26, 2025
Hiring senior level agency employees has been a common practice for one Fortune 500 federal government contractor for years.
But that practice could be changing, according to the CEO of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) — and she says companies like hers are wondering if hiring certain people fired by DOGE could hurt business.
It’s one more way that President Donald Trump’s attack on the federal government workforce could send ripple effects into the private sector, as contractors try to navigate the fallout.
“I think it’s much more of a question now than it’s ever been previously,” Toni Townes-Whitney, CEO of SAIC, told News4.
SAIC is a federal government contractor with billions of dollars worth of national security contracts. Townes-Whitney says it’s always been common practice to hire senior level agency officials after they leave their government post.
Those people understand their former agency’s mission, they have the connections, and they can steer a business in the right direction to win big contracts.
But in the current political climate, Townes-Whitney says companies are wondering if the Trump administration would hold a grudge against those once-reliable hires.
“Because of possibly the speed with which transitions occurred, the language that we hear around people who were exiting and people who were entering, there is a question as to whether those senior officials will be well received in the new administration when they’re coming from the private sector,” Townes-Whitney said.
It’s a concern which could — though it’s not guaranteed — exacerbate the flood of fired federal employees.
That includes the many probationary employees abruptly fired two weeks ago. Probationary is not a term reserved exclusively for new hires: It can also mean someone who was recently promoted to a management position.
“They are firing NIH researchers through a loophole of people who were recently promoted or making routine annual renewals,” Emilea Vantriglea, a researcher with the National Institutes of Health, told News4 after that agency let hundreds of employees go.
“Many of us have been through multiple administrations,” Gretchen De Silva, a former USAID employee, told News4.
Townes-Whitney says the concern about hiring Biden administration agency officials hasn’t stopped their hiring, but says it’s a reason to press pause.
“So we’re just testing, we’re pressure testing,” she said. “I think every company is, and we want to make sure — because that would be a real shift than what we’ve seen in prior years.”
It could mean a harder job search for former senior level government workers, and a way for President Trump to steer the private sector — by choosing who to work with based on politics.
Courtesy/Source: NBC News4 WDC
