The federal agency responsible for managing the U.S. arsenal of nuclear bombs and warheads plans to furlough 1,400 workers by Monday, the Energy Department said Friday, as the government shutdown’s effects stretch into a third week.
The Energy Department said that about 400 workers would remain at the agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration, to protect “property and the safety of human life,” the department said in a statement.
The agency, which is semiautonomous but overseen by the Energy Department, was created in 2000. It is responsible for maintaining America’s nuclear stockpile and for preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world. Its precursors include the Atomic Energy Commission and Energy Research and Development Administration.
The agency employs nearly 100,000 contractors and subcontractors, according to the Energy Department. It had never furloughed any government employees during a government shutdown, the department said.
“We are left with no choice this time,” Ben Dietderich, a spokesman for the Energy Department, said in an email. “We’ve extended funding as long as we could.”
The department said the agency’s Office of Secure Transportation, which moves nuclear weapons and materials, had funding to operate through Oct. 27.
The energy secretary, Chris Wright, will visit a nuclear security station on Monday to discuss the effects the government shutdown is having on American nuclear deterrent efforts, the Energy Department said. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Mr. Wright said that the U.S. nuclear stockpile would remain secure, but that the government shutdown could compromise a program to replace aging nuclear weaponry.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the plans to modernize America’s nuclear arsenal will cost more than $900 billion over the coming decade. During President Trump’s second term, his administration has pursued a sharp increase in spending on the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Alabama and chair of the House Armed Services Committee, expressed alarm at the impending furloughs.
“These are not employees that you want to go home,” Mr. Rogers said at a news conference on Friday. “They’re managing and handling a very important strategic asset for us. They need to be at work and be paid.”
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