The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under President Trump’s administration is reportedly in the process of trying to rehire workers who were mistakenly let go from overseeing the US nuclear stockpile.
The executive order from President Trump aimed at ‘reforming the federal workforce to better serve Americans’ appears to be facing challenges. Officials from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were dismissed, reportedly without realizing that they were responsible for the nuclear stockpile.
On February 11, the White House released a fact sheet outlining Trump’s plan to ‘reform the federal workforce to better serve Americans’.
The executive order suggests ‘making the federal workforce more efficient and effective’ by collaborating with DOGE to ‘reduce the size of the federal workforce and limit hiring to essential positions,’ thereby ‘significantly reducing the size of the government’.
According to a Reuters report on February 14, more than 300 staff members received termination notices from the NNSA on February 13, as confirmed by two sources.
However, an Energy Department spokesperson disputed this figure, informing CNN that the actual number is ‘less than 50 people’ and that they were mainly in ‘administrative and clerical roles’.
Another source indicated that Congress was alarmed because it seemed the DOE did not fully understand that the NNSA is responsible for managing the nuclear stockpile.
“The nuclear deterrent is the backbone of American security and stability – period. For there to be any even very small holes poked even in the maintenance of that deterrent should be extremely frightening to people,” they commented.
Regardless of the number dismissed, officials are now recognizing the error in terminating workers involved in managing the US nuclear weapons and are attempting to reverse these decisions. An email obtained by NBC News indicates they are struggling to reconnect with these employees.
The email, addressed to NNSA employees, read: “The termination letters for some NNSA probationary employees are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel.
“Please work with your supervisors to send this information (once you get it) to people’s personal contact emails.”
Moreover, an NNSA nuclear safety specialist who was dismissed told NBC News that she still could not access her emails but had been informed by her manager that her termination notice was ‘rescinded’.
She mentioned that while she would return to her position, she plans to leave ‘as soon as [she] find[s] another role’.