WASHINGTON — The Donald Trump administration paused on firing hundreds of federal employees that worked on the nation’s nuclear weapons for the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, media outlets reported.
Late last Thursday Feb 13, over 300 of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) 1,800 employees were fired, including all probationary employees, through Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
By late Friday night, the NNSA acting director Teresa Robbins issued a memo rescinding the firing of all but 28 employees “effective immediately,” according to Associated Press.
It has been about a month since Trump announced, and nominated, his pick of former New York congressman Brandon Williams to head NNSA. Until his confirmation hearing, which has not yet been put on the Senate’s calendar, and the process following the hearing is complete, Robbins will lead NNSA.
Lawmakers have criticized the firings, including to Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who said it is “not true” that the jobs have been reinstated.
“I was contacted by National Nuclear Safety Administration worker who was fired, then told her termination was paused, then told she was fired again,” Beyer said on the social media platform X Thursday.
“She says there were numerous others at NNSA treated the same way: nuclear safety workers fired without cause,” Beyer said.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a hearing Thursday with the Energy and Natural Resources committee, said even though most of the firings have been rescinded, “why would they want to go back after being treated this way? Our best experts have lost trust in the US government.”
According to NBC News, NNSA officials tried notifying employees Friday that were laid off the day prior that “termination letters for some NNSA probationary employees are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel.”
The layoffs were also heavily criticized by former and current NNSA officials. Jill Hruby, NNSA’s former administrator, said the firings would cause “nearly guaranteed” delays to the country’s modernization program, according to USA Today.
Additionally, in a rare social media posting, Rob Plonski, the agency’s deputy division director of worker safety and health, wrote on LinkedIn over the weekend that he feels “compelled to speak out against the recent decisions to reduce the DOE/NNSA federal workforce” without regard for “impacts of tomorrow.”
“We cannot expect to project strength, deterrence, and world dominance while simultaneously stripping away the federal workforce that provides strategic oversight to ensure our nuclear enterprise remains safe, secure, and effective,” Plonski said. “This is a pivotal moment.”
In a subsequent LinkedIn post the following day, Plonski thanked NNSA senior executives for having successfully ““pushed back and overturned the purge of highly skilled and mission critical staff that occurred yesterday.”
