‘I have concerns.’ GOP Rep. Newhouse weighs in on job cuts at nuclear site and more

The Trump administration needs to take a more nuanced approach to terminations and furloughs of federal government workers, said Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.

He said he has shared that message with the White House as Tri-Cities federal workers who provide oversight for the Hanford nuclear site and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been fired, along with Bonneville Power Administration workers, as part of widespread cuts of the federal workforce.

“I have concerns that the unintended consequences of these workforce reductions will have long-lasting implications at Hanford, PNNL and BPA,” he said in a statement late Wednesday.

“A strong, well trained federal workforce is essential,” he said.

The federal workforce and related spending must be reduced, he said, but “we must ensure that positions critical to public safety, energy and research are maintained.”

No job layoff numbers

Newhouse had no total for the number of layoffs or the job totals of workers laid off.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said at at news media briefing with some fired workers earlier on Wednesday that the best she had was an estimate of the number of jobs cut at different locations and agencies in Washington state.

Under previous administrations, both Republican and Democrat, she has always been able to talk to agencies and get the information she needs.

But now “we are not being given information from the agencies themselves about those exact numbers,” she said. “So we are collecting our information a lot from people who are calling working with folks that are willing to be whistleblowers.”

Workers are reluctant to talk for fear of retribution, including being targeted for firing if they are still working, she said.

She called the lack of information “troubling.”

She has heard that the layoffs are “well over a dozen” at the Hanford nuclear reservation, she said.

The Tri-City Herald has not received a response from DOE about the number of workers fired in the Tri-Cities and their positions despite repeated requests for information.

The site employs about 13,000 people, mostly through private contractors and their subcontractors, who are paid with federal taxpayer money but are not federal employees. 

About 300 federal employees based in Richland provide planning, oversight and management of the contractors. 

Hanford job cuts were among those employees. There also have reportedly been cuts to the DOE staff of about 35 based in Richland that plays a similar role for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a DOE research laboratory with about 6,400 workers, most of them based in Richland.

Murray has said that she believes the Hanford jobs cut included safety engineers and environmental scientists.

Concerns over more layoffs

The initial DOE firings appear to be of workers who were still in their job probationary periods for employees who have been promoted or are new hires. Probationary periods for new hires typically are for one year, but under some circumstances can be for two or three years.

Federal workers also have been given the option of volunteering for deferred resignations and being paid through the end of the fiscal year in September. However, union and employee groups have urged caution because that pay may not be included in the federal budget.

Information has not been released on how many federal workers in the Tri-Cities area volunteered for deferred resignations.

It is possible there also could be additional reductions in force for federal workers nationwide as the voluntary deferred resignations have not met targets for job reductions.

“I am really frightened about next steps,” Murray said.

Cuts are being made without any consideration of what skills need to be retained, she said.

“It is ham handed, it is dangerous and it is mean,” she said.

At some agencies, including BPA, some laid off workers were nearly immediately recalled.

But no DOE workers in the Tri-Cities are known to have gotten their jobs back. Federal nuclear workers who were recalled were involved in nuclear weapons production and nonproliferation work at the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Hanford nuclear site workers are doing environmental cleanup work after the 580-square-mile Eastern Washington site adjacent to Richland was used to produce nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War.

The work left radioactive and hazardous chemical contamination in groundwater moving toward the Columbia River and in the soil. Underground tanks, many prone to leaking, still hold 56 million gallons of a mix of radioactive and chemical waste.

BPA layoffs and federal deficit

At BPA, about 30 workers reportedly have been recalled to work after being laid off. 

It is the wholesaler of much of the electricity used in the Tri-Cities and owns the grid that delivers it.

The agency markets wholesale electrical power from 31 dams, including on the Columbia and Snake rivers, and the Columbia Generating Station, a nuclear power plant 10 miles from the Tri-Cities. BPA also operates and maintains 15,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines.

Estimates of layoffs have varied, but U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both D-Ore., said BPA could lose 20% of its workforce.

They said that about 200 BPA employees have signed up for a buyout offer, 90 new job offers have been rescinded and up to 400 employees are in their probationary employment periods and could be laid off.

The cuts come despite BPA being entirely self-funding by electric rate-payers and not relying on taxpayer dollars, they said.

“... (T)hese workforce reductions do absolutely nothing to reduce the federal deficit,” the senators said. “If the administration’s goal is truly to ensure reliable, secure and affordable energy, then why are you actively dismantling the most effective and self-sustaining power system in the country?”

Murray said that the firing of federal workers is not about saving money.

“Otherwise there would be no reason for them to fire hundreds of workers at the Bonneville Power Administration,” she said. “... they’re being fired on a whim because two billionaires don’t have a clue about what they do and don’t care to learn.”

This story was originally published February 20, 2025 at 12:37 PM.