A continuing resolution or government shutdown to start fiscal 2016 could mean furloughs for employees of the roughly 110-employee Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, according to DNFSB’s “Shutdown
Plan in the Event of a Lapse in Appropriation (2015)” released on Friday. If such a situation occurs, board members would prioritize keeping DNFSB site representatives stationed and working at their respective facilities, and to keep “key staff personnel working in order to continue providing oversight at priority sites and maintaining essential activities,” the plan states. The board would maintain full operations initially, and will reevaluate its strategy weekly to determine the necessity of furloughs and to update spend plans.
If no funding should be available for the board, only the general counsel or deputy general counsel, and certain specified site reps at five designated sites would be spared from a stoppage of all normal oversight activities, including the ability to receive public and worker safety complaints, according to the plan. Those sites are the Hanford and Savannah River sites, the Pantex Plant, and Oak Ridge and Los Alamos national laboratories. DNFSB Chairwoman Joyce Connery would be able to recall any board staff to duty in the case of an emergency that may threaten public and worker health and safety, the plan states. DNFSB estimates that a shutdown of operations would one-half day.
With negotiations on a fiscal 2016 federal appropriations bill still dormant, Congress is likely to either approve a three-month CR this week and submit it to President Barack Obama for signature before the start of next fiscal year, or if the bill fails to pass, the federal government could shut down.
