The agency that maintains America’s nuclear weapons stockpile is reportedly preparing to furlough about 80% of its workforce — highlighting the widening impact of the government shutdown as it enters its third week.
Roughly 1,400 employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) — a branch of the Department of Energy — will be sent home starting Monday, with only about 375 designated as essential staff expected to remain on the job, according to a notice obtained by Politico.
The furloughs come as the agency’s funding has dried up due to a budget impasse that has closed much of the federal government for 17 days — now the third-longest shutdown in US history.
“The Democrat shutdown is now jeopardizing our national security,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital on Friday afternoon.
“By refusing to pass the clean, bipartisan funding extension, the Democrats are causing funds to run out for critical programs, resulting in furloughs of personnel at the National Nuclear Security Administration who manage our nuclear stockpile.”
Rogers added that the furloughs are “reckless and could be completely avoided if the Democrats simply voted to reopen the government and stopped holding the American people hostage.”
Leading Democrats, however, reject the claim that they are to blame for the ongoing shutdown.
“Every day that Republicans refuse to negotiate to end this shutdown, the worse it gets for Americans — and the clearer it becomes who’s fighting for them,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told Fox Digital earlier in October of the shutdown.
“Each day our case to fix healthcare and end this shutdown gets better and better, stronger and stronger because families are opening their letters showing how high their premiums will climb if Republicans get their way.”
The NNSA oversees the safety and reliability of the nation’s nuclear warheads, manages the Navy’s nuclear propulsion systems and leads efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear materials to hostile states or terrorist groups.
While it does not directly operate deployed weapons — that role belongs to the Pentagon — its scientific and technical work underpins America’s nuclear deterrent.
House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said Friday that the agency’s carryover funds were “about to run out.”
Speaking at a press conference alongside other Republican leaders, Rogers warned that “these are not employees that you want to go home,” describing the furloughs as a serious national security concern.
The Energy Department confirmed the numbers and said that while critical safety operations will continue, many research, modernization and nonproliferation programs will pause.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright is scheduled to visit a nuclear security station on Monday to highlight the impact of the shutdown on the US nuclear enterprise.
The agency’s Office of Secure Transportation, which moves nuclear materials around the country, is funded through October 27, officials said.
The shutdown has forced hundreds of thousands of federal workers either to stay home or work without pay, shuttered parts of the judicial branch and paused billions in federal infrastructure projects.
With Congress still deadlocked and the Senate not due to reconvene until Monday, the furloughs at one of the government’s most sensitive agencies are the latest sign that the standoff is rippling across the core of US national security.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reversed a decision to lay off hundreds of NNSA employees.
The employees who were initially terminated worked on reassembling warheads, one of the most sensitive jobs across the nuclear weapons enterprise. Those positions usually require the highest levels of security clearance in the federal government.
The hundreds let go at NNSA were part of a DOGE purge across the Department of Energy that targeted about 2,000 employees.
Days later, DOGE rescinded the firings and the laid off employees were rehired.
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