March 17, 2014

LANGUAGE WOULD EASE FIRING OF FEDS FOR NAT’L SECURITY BLUNDERS

By ExchangeMonitor

Frustrated that no federal employees lost their jobs over the Y-12 security breach last year, the House Armed Services Committee has drafted language giving the Secretary of Energy the authority to fire feds responsible for future mishaps that endanger the security of special nuclear material or classified information. The language was included in a markup of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act released by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon yesterday, and would require that the Secretary of Energy “consider the termination to be in the interests of the United States.” In documents released yesterday, the committee noted that several federal employees were reassigned or allowed to retire following the security breach, but federal employment rules prevented the employees from being fired. “The committee believes that strong accountability actions are required in response to egregious security problems; this section would provide the Secretary of Energy the authority needed to ensure strong accountability actions are possible,” the committee said.

Former Chief of Defense Nuclear Security Doug Fremont and former Y-12 Deputy Manager Dan Hoag were among the employees that were reassigned in the wake of the incident. NNSA spokesman Josh McConaha said “there are both legal and process challenges related to firing Federal employees,” but largely declined to comment on specifics involving personnel matters. “We have removed multiple people who had some role in oversight of security at Y-12 before the incident, but I can’t comment about any specific personnel actions taken,” he said.

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