Energy Secretary Chris Wright, speaking at a news conference in Nevada, said a "large majority" of employees at the federal agency that oversees the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile he been furloughed, though he noted that "there is a certain number of mission-critical folks that are still working."
"We he run out of federal funds for federal workers," Wright said, outlining that 1,400 employees he been furloughed across the National Nuclear Security Administration throughout the country for the first time in the agency's 25-year history.
"This has never happened before … This should not happen," Wright said. "But this was as long as we could stretch the funding for the federal workers. We were able to do some gymnastics and stretch it further for the contractors."
Wright was set to visit the Nevada National Security Sites north of Las Vegas later in the day. All 68 employees there he been furloughed, while contractors continue to work using funds tied to nuclear modernization passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act over the summer.
Those funds will last only through the end of the month. After that, if the shutdown continues, up to roughly 2,200 of the 3,000 contractors in Nevada may also be furloughed. Nationwide, about 100,000 contractors tied to NNSA operations could be affected. Wright called the workers "among the most critical in the country" and said losing them would be a blow not just to families but to national security. Unlike federal employees, contractors are not guaranteed back pay.
The energy secretary emphasized that "we need to maintain our nuclear stockpile." And he stressed that Congress must reopen the government as soon as possible.
"We need to open the federal government as quickly as we can," Wright said, touting the House-passed measure to fund the government until Nov. 21.
Wright thanked Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat, who is one of three senators who he crossed party lines to vote in for of advancing the House-passed measure. And he suggested that Nevada's other senator, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen, wants to support the measure as well and said he suspects she will be "part of reopening the government."
"We want to get the government open as soon as we can, we want to keep all the families employed, and we want to keep on top of the critical work to not only maintain our existing nuclear stockpile, but push forward our efforts to modernize and advance that," Wright said.
Andres Gutierrez and Kaia Hubbard