U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told U.S. Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth at his Senate hearing in January that she was worried about Hegseth’s potential hiring tactics, suggesting that he might only hire civilian employees loyal to President Trump.
When Murray said “the Navy needs welders, not people who can recite a president’s executive orders,” Hegseth sought to reassure the Senator, saying “there’s never been a litmus test for hiring welders.”
This week, Murray obtained a copy of Hegseth’s “hiring merit plan” and questionnaire which includes the query, “How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”
Murray responded to Hegseth’s Pentagon litmus test questionnaire, saying: “This is outrageous.”
Pete Hegseth tried to tell me there was “no litmus test” to hire anyone at DoD. Not true.
Why does a WELDER need to share with the federal government what their favorite Trump Executive Order is as part of their job application?
Drop the politics. Hire the best. That simple. pic.twitter.com/VrS8wukJaS
— Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) June 16, 2025
With the video Murray added: “Pete Hegseth tried to tell me there was ‘no litmus test’ to hire anyone at DoD. Not true. Why does a WELDER need to share with the federal government what their favorite Trump Executive Order is as part of their job application? Drop the politics. Hire the best. That simple.”
According to the Department of Defense website: “DOD civilians are restricted by law in the types of partisan activities they can engage in. It varies by grade, position and agency.
“The governing law is the Hatch Act of 1939. The purpose of the Hatch Act is to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation, according to information on the U.S. Office of Special Counsel’s website. The Hatch Act has been amended several times since first passed in the Roosevelt Administration to cover changing circumstances — the rise of the Internet, for example.”