The Energy Department began laying off staff as the Trump administration accelerated sweeping cuts across the government, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Around 1,000 federal workers, all probationary employees, were told they were losing their jobs on Thursday, according to one of the people.
More than 300 of those workers were employed at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the nation’s nuclear weapons fleet, and about 50 were at the department’s loan programs office, which helps bring new energy technologies to market, said two of the people. All three spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the moves publicly.
In addition, hundreds of federal employees were fired at both the Bonneville Power Administration and Western Area Power Administration, which oversee much of the Western grid, the people said. A spokeswoman for the Department of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The National Nuclear Security Administration referred a request for comment to the Department of Energy.
The department was the latest to be hit with layoffs as President Trump and a team led by billionaire Elon Musk ramped up efforts to slash and reshape the federal work force. The administration has recently focused its efforts on workers on probation, who do not receive the same protections that many other federal employees have.
Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, said on Friday that she had heard from workers on the ground that about 400 probationary employees were terminated at the Bonneville Power Administration. Another roughly 200 employees at the agency took the resignation offer, according to Ms. Murray’s office.
“This includes everyone from electricians and engineers to biologists to line workers to cybersecurity experts, and so many others,” Ms. Murray said in a statement. “These are literally the people who help keep the lights on — and now they’re being fired on a whim because Trump and Elon Musk don’t have a clue about what they do and why it’s important.”
The administration has aggressively sought to overhaul the federal civilian work force since Mr. Trump took office. Late last month, the administration sent out a mass email to roughly two million federal employees offering them the option to resign but be paid through the end of September. About 75,000 workers have accepted the offer, according to the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources division. The administration closed the program to new entries earlier this week after a federal judge declined to block the plan.
Several other agencies terminated workers on Thursday, the same day that leaders from the Office of Personnel Management met with agency representatives and advised them to lay off most probationary workers.
On Thursday evening, the Department of Veterans Affairs laid off more than 1,000 employees, including probationary workers who had been at the agency for less than two years. The Office of Personnel Management terminated dozens of employees within its own ranks. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also laid off many employees on fixed-term assignments, after the agency had dismissed more than 70 probationary workers earlier this week.
Workers are typically on probation for a year, but the period can last longer for certain positions. The federal government employed roughly 220,000 employees who had been serving in their roles for less than a year, according to the most recent data as of May.
Union officials quickly denounced the layoffs as they continued in waves across the federal government.
“We will stand with every impacted employee, pursue every legal challenge available, and hold this administration accountable for its reckless actions,” Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, said in a statement on Thursday. “Federal employees are not disposable, and we will not allow the government to treat them as such.”
Some terminations came before the administration closed its resignation program to new entrants. On Wednesday, the General Services Administration — which manages the federal real estate portfolio — told dozens of employees across its technology division that they would lose their jobs. Before they received their official termination letters, some workers were urged to consider the administration’s resignation offer again.
At least 60 probationary employees at the Education Department were laid off on Wednesday, according to officials at the American Federation of Government Employees.
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