In testimony from the Senate committee, leaders from the National Nuclear Security Agency acknowledged the issue of staffing after the Doge-led cuts.
NNSA description, latest agency hits on Doge Cuts
The NNSA within the Department of Energy is tasked with ensuring that the country’s nuclear weapons are safe and secure, but not safe from Doge Cuts.
- During testimony on May 20, the top official of the National Nuclear Security Agency acknowledged the risk and impact of workforce vacancies caused by Elon Musk’s Doge.
- A USA Today survey published May 18th detailed the potential impact of endemic federal staffing shortages at the NNSA has recently been exacerbated by the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce.
WASHINGTON – The top leader of the US Nuclear Weapons Director Agency acknowledged DOGE-related staffing challenges at a Senate hearing.
Sen. Angus King and I-Maine were asked whether employment freezes, resignation and attrition could lead to “a rather important vacancies.” Hoagland said on May 20 that he heard that his office “changed people around” to “meet important needs.”
Hundreds of government efficiency were fired earlier this year amid a $1.7 trillion nuclear upgrade in a chaotic wave of layoffs. Most were later rehired. Other important staff agreed to quit their jobs under Doge’s “Fork in the Road” resignation offer.
King said the NNSA claims that the staffing shortages do not place the agency’s mission at the short-term risk.
The NNSA struggled with issues with staffing and talent pipeline decades before the new Trump administration, a recent USA Today investigation has been found. Musk then began efforts to reduce the federal workforce, which further destabilized the NNSA workforce, experts said.
The agency is currently facing a near-recruitment freeze, losing more than 130 of its 2,000 federal employees, losing more than 130 in the Doge Deferred resignation program. More than 300 morale-injuring employees were fired in February and revived.
James McConnell, acting assistant deputy administrator for the NNSA, told the senators during the Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee that they could handle losses “in the short term,” but the NNSA “need to make sure our resources are appropriate.”
Experts say USA Today could maintain a shortage of staffing. He said this could cause further delays and cost overruns in the troubling portion of government agencies in the country’s wider $1.7 trillion nuclear weapons modernization efforts. USA Today has recorded billions of dollars of overruns and safety issues at NNSA facilities due to a talent shortage.
In an interview, NNSA defense programme, predecessor to Hoagland’s Senator Marv Adams, said during his tenure, “Our federal (warhead) program office had a hard time keeping up and keeping up due to a lack of staff.”
The agency’s field office is facing similar tensions, according to David Bowman, former manager of the NNSA’s Nevada Field Office. From 2020 until his retirement in the fall of 2024, Bowman oversaw operations on the vast Nevada National Security Site.
The NNSA field office must review and approve many of the work on the labor and safety management plans of large nuclear weapons agents. In an interview, Bowman said such reviews “need to have technical experts who are FRED.”
“If a field office or safety expert becomes a short staff member, the job will be backed up,” he said.
Bowman described the qualified staff at a remote office in northwestern Las Vegas as “a big challenge we had.”
Contributed by Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA Today
If you are a current or former NNSA employee and would like to report on a USA Today agent, please contact us by email via Davis Winkie at dwinkie@usatoday.com or via the signal-encrypted messaging app at 770-539-3257. Davis Winkie’s role in covering nuclear threats and national security at USA Today is supported by partnership with Autorider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partner. Funders do not provide editor input.
