Mass terminations hit NNSA this week, all probationary employees fired

As the Donald Trump administration moves ahead with its agenda to shrink the federal workforce, roughly one-sixth of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s staff was terminated Thursday.

According to NPR, who broke the story Thursday, 300 of the agency’s 1,800 staff were fired. 

The Department of Energy, of which the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is semi-autonomous, also began firing probationary employees on Thursday, according to NPR. The employees would have worked for less than two years in the federal government, and were reportedly let go without notice or severance pay.

A number of employees being let go “aren’t just newbies” at least at the DOE Office of Environmental Management, one former government employee told Exchange Monitor. This is being many staff were reclassified from general service to “exempted” status a couple of years ago in an effort to retain talent, the source said. 

DOE Environmental Management did not respond to  a request for comment as of Friday morning. NNSA forwarded comment requests to DOE headquarters, which has not responded.

On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order directing agency heads to “promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force” as part of an attempt to cut government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency. While the executive order granted exemptions for national security reasons, NNSA was not denied the exemption.