HHS FREEZES HIRING FOR 45 DAYS TO ASSESS EFFECTS OF GRAMM-RUDMAN-HOLLINGS

HHS FREEZES HIRING FOR 45 DAYS TO ASSESS EFFECTS OF GRAMM-RUDMAN-HOLLINGS balanced budget law. A departmental directive issued Feb. 13 from HHS Secretary Otis Bowen's office prohibits HHS agencies from hiring new staff and restricts HHS administrative spending. According to a memo outlining the action, the hiring freeze will give HHS Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget John O'Shaughnessy time to determine the effects of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings balanced budget law on the department's program and administration. The law requires reductions totaling $1.03 bil. at HHS in fiscal 1986. The cuts are scheduled to take effect March 1. "While we're determining where to apply the reductions, we must maintain careful control over expenditures to retain our flexibility," the memo says. The directive freezes hiring throughout HHS on nearly all but "direct patient care employees in the Public Health Service," a department spokesman explained. Staffing at NIH's Clinical Center, for example, would be exempted from the hiring freeze. The directive also limits internal personnel movements across organizational lines within the department. The departmental action further calls for "discretionary administrative spending" throughout HHS. This limits "particularly travel, equipment purchases and rentals, contracts," and similar expenditures, the memo says. The secretary will assess the need to extend the directive after HHS reviews FY 1986 spending cuts under Gramm-Rudman-Hollings.