Lee on vacancy reduction of 49 headcount positions

In terms of vacancy reduction, executive plan includes baseline funding of 3 million starting in fiscal 27 from 49 headcount positions.

So what were these 49 positions that were eliminated and how will DOT be able to carry out the functions?

Sure, I can say to start, you know, that the vacancy reduction was done in tandem with the ending of the two-for-one hiring policy.

So while, you know, it's a reduction in sort of theoretical headcount, it's actually a lot more helpful for us to have real headcount that we can allocate, you know, based on the needs.

So in the end, this is where...

really a net positive for us.

Igor could talk more about the specifics, but that's how kind of we're looking at it.

Thank you, Commissioner.

So we looked at all of our vacancies and looked at longstanding vacancies.

There were a couple parts of the agency that just weren't able to hire for a long time.

So to the Commissioner's point, to allow us to enable hiring faster with the reduction of the two-for-one hiring freeze, we're going to take some vacancies down and hopefully that'll help us speed up.

Hiring for all of our other positions that need it.