Two Department of Energy nuclear cleanup offices in New Mexico could be hard hit by the White House deferred-resignation program, according to a list viewed by Exchange Monitor.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management field offices at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Carlsbad, N.M., office that oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) could both lose more than a quarter of their federal employees if the list is correct.
Overall, Environmental Management could stand to lose 153 people or more than 10% of its federal staff, according to the list, apparently generated inside DOE.
The Carlsbad Field Office would see 15 staff members or 26% of its federal headcount take a deferred resignation. Meanwhile the Los Alamos field office could lose seven people, or 28% of its federal workforce leave. The Environmental Management field office at Los Alamos oversees the legacy waste cleanup contractor, Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B).
As far as sheer number of feds departing, 38 people could leave the Hanford Field Office in Washington state, which is about 13% of its total federal staff; the nuclear cleanup field office at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina could lose 30, which amounts to about 16% of its headcount. Twenty-eight employees or 14% of the federal staff at DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center could leave.
Short of getting direct confirmation by the departing employees themselves, it can be tough to confirm the departures. Spokespeople at the Environmental Management branch and parent DOE have been silent on almost anything concerning federal workforce issues since Jan. 20.
President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to pare the federal payroll by both offering deferred resignations along with termination of numerous feds still in their probationary periods.
