White House efforts to reduce the federal workforce have hit the Department of Energy’s largest nuclear cleanup project, the Hanford Site, and it does not sit well with Democrats in Washington state.
President Donald Trump is “indiscriminately firing workers at the Hanford nuclear cleanup site,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), said in a Friday Feb. 14 post on the social media platform X. X is owned by technology billionaire Elon Musk, who also heads the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“For Elon and DOGE who have no concept of what these workers do: trying to run Hanford with a skeleton crew is a recipe for disaster that could have irreversible impacts,” Murray went on to say in the post.
Citing a statement by Murray, the Tri-City Herald reported Monday more than a dozen workers hired during the past two years in at Hanford were laid off last Thursday. In addition, around 35 Hanford federal employees are believed to have signed up for buyouts under the Office of Personnel Management’s deferred resignation program, also referred to as the Fork in the Road initiative. The newspaper said there are around 300 federal workers at Hanford. There are roughly 13,000 workers at Hanford, mostly contractors.
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said in a Saturday statement about 2,000 people nationwide have been let go nationwide as part of layoffs initiated by the administration and DOGE. The senator said more than 300 people were laid off at the National Nuclear Security Administration, although major news outlets are now reporting many of those are being rehired.
Last week, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) announced she was proposing the “Nobody Elected Elon Musk Act” in the House of Representatives. The measure would make it easier for individuals to bring federal claims against Musk and DOGE.
