Carter's Freeze on Federal Jobs Irks Environmentalists
The Environmental Defense Fund has complained to President Carter that one aspect of the administrationÛªs anti-inflation effort could cripple several new programs administered by the Environmental Protection Agency.</br></br>In a letter to Carter last week. Arlie Schardt. executive director of the lobbying group, said that the administrationÛªs plan to freeze existing vacancies in the federal workforce1 could leave as many as 1,200 budget* ; ed jobs in EPA unfilled.</br></br>ÛÏWe fully suport your efforts to curb inflation, but do not believe that the achievement of this goal requires the gutting of environmental and other health and safety programs," Schardt said.</br></br>In his anti-inflation speech to the nation last week the president announced that he was immediately ordering that federal agencies fill only one of every two vacancies as they occur. He said this would reduce the federal workforce by about 20,000 jobs, further cutting the budget deficit.</br></br>It was not clear at the time what would be done about vacancies that already exist in the government. But yesterday Bob Dietsch. a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, confirmed that these vacanciesÛÓwhich numbered 20.000 jobs at the end of August and probably fewer at the time of the presidentÛªs announcementÛÓhave been frozen.