The Trump administration is lifting a federal hiring freeze as of Wednesday morning. White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney announced the policy change in a briefing to reporters Tuesday. Cautioning "this does not mean agencies will be free to hire willy-nilly," Mulvaney said the across-the-board hiring freeze the president imposed by executive order three days after taking office in January is being replaced with a "smarter plan, a more strategic plan, a more surgical plan." Trump's hiring freeze was never really across the board; it exempted military personnel, who make up more than a third of the federal workforce, and...