Federal nuclear workforce in Nevada furloughed as funding runs out

Nearly 70 federal employees at the agency tasked with overseeing and modernizing the nuclear stockpile in Nevada were furloughed Monday.

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced the temporary layoffs at a North Las Vegas news conference as the federal government shutdown neared the three-week mark.

The 68 affected workers represent “virtually all of our federal employees” at the local Nevada National Security Sites office, and a fraction of the roughly 1,400 staffers in the National Nuclear Security Administration who received furlough notices across the U.S., he said.

“Today is the day our ability to deploy funds to pay those workers ended,” Wright said.

He noted that these were the first furloughs to affect the federal agency in its quarter-century history.

“This should not happen, but this was as long as we can stretch the funding for the federal workers,” Wright said.

Contractors safe for now

Federal officials had expected Monday’s furloughs to also affect some of the more than 3,000 contractors in Nevada who work for the agency, but the Trump administration worked to keep those positions funded through at least the end of the month, Wright said.

“We were able to do some gymnastics and stretch it further for the contractors.”

Should lawmakers not reach an agreement to reopen the government soon, the majority of the contractors could be furloughed and ineligible for back pay, Wright said.

“If they’re furloughed, they’re not going to get paid,” he said. “If that continued on for weeks more, they’ve got families to support, they’re going to get jobs elsewhere.”

Added Wright: “We can’t afford to lose those workers. We need them. They’re trained. They’re part of the complex. They’re driving our nuclear security forward. We need them here. We can’t lose them, but if you stop paying them for a few weeks, you run the risk of losing your team.”

Nuclear efforts in Nevada

Historically, Nevada has been instrumental in the development of nuclear technology, he noted.

Up to 15,000 workers were on the test site on any given day during active atomic bomb testing in the 1950s, but those numbers have dwindled as the nation stopped above-ground, then below-ground bomb testing.

“Today we need to maintain them. We need to make sure they’re all in working order. We need to understand when it’s time to rotate out and replace weapons,” he said.

Wright said there was no short-term risks to national security and that there would continue to be workers safeguarding the nuclear stockpile.

However, modernizing the technology and conducting testing could slow under the shutdown, he said. “We don’t want to see any of that get off-track or delayed.”

Politics of the shutdown

U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, has broken ranks with Senate Democrats to keep the government open, voting in favor of Republican and Democratic measures.

“I thank Senator Cortez Masto, and I plead to Sen. (Jacky) Rosen, who has stood for these workers and has stood for the importance of our nuclear security, to move her vote from abstain to in favor of continuing the funding,” Wright said.

He said he’d spoken to Cortez Masto on Friday.

“Threatening further layoffs and furloughs is unnecessary and dangerous,” wrote Lauren Wodarski, the senator’s communications director, in a statement. “A publicity stunt as Nevada families are struggling is especially ridiculous coming from an administration that just slashed bargaining rights of Department of Energy employees via executive order earlier this year.”

The president signed an executive order in March that exempted the Department of Energy and other agencies with a primary function of intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative or national security work from federal collective bargaining rules. Legal challenges against the order continue.

In a statement, Rosen blamed President Donald Trump and Republicans for the shutdown, citing the party’s majorities in Congress.

The stalemate in Washington, D.C., has centered around Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, which Democrats say will lead to higher health insurance premiums for recipients. Among other demands, Democrats want those subsidies extended.

“It’s on them to end this government shutdown and take action to prevent a spike in health care costs for hardworking families,” Rosen said.

“The Trump Administration would rather continue this shutdown and furlough federal workers, including at the Nevada National Security Site, than work across party lines to extend the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits that families rely on to keep their health care affordable,” the statement said.

Wright said he understood negotiations about spending bills needed to take place and that he was hopeful Rosen would support efforts to reopen the government.

“That’s what the House and Senate are all about,” Wright said. “But let’s do it with the government open, with all of our workers being paid and with all of our critical national security work moving forward.”

Wright name-checked the Democratic Senate minority leader.

“This is (Sen.) Chuck Schumer worried about his personal primary. This is one person who thinks we have to do something, no matter how hapless it is, no matter how destructive it is to our country, we have to do something to be relevant,” he said. “We gotta think about our country first and our families first.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.