We and others have dismissed the possibility of widespread budget cuts under Trump for the state's nuclear outposts--Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs--and that probably will hold true. But the NYT now reports that National Nuclear Security Administration employees have been paid off after their positions were targeted in cuts recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
At Los Alamos the number of employees leaving is modest but does signal that under DOGE nothing is off limits. That will keep the Labs on their tippy toes as they look out for any further cuts. From the NYT:
The field office that oversees the NNSA's laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., where plutonium pits are made, lost nine staff members, according to the documents reviewed by The Times. Budgeted for 97 employees in the fiscal year ending last September, it is now operating with 76. Among those who left was the deputy facility operations manager, a top job.
Terry C. Wallace Jr., who ran the laboratory in 2018, said that it carried out some of the agency’s most high-risk operations. The government is ultimately responsible both for ensuring the public’s safety and for authorizing work to proceed, he said. He is “quite certain” that fewer government staff members “will have a negative impact on the operation,” he added. A spokeswoman for the Energy Department said in a statement, “N.N.S.A is committed to continuing its critical national security mission through the development, modernization and stewardship of America’s nuclear deterrent and nonproliferation and counterterrorism efforts.”
Employment levels have skyrocketed at Los Alamos in recent years as work continues on nuclear weapons modernization, so much so that the lab had to open up office space in nearby Santa Fe.
Senators Lujan and Heinrich are the state's DC watchdogs for the national labs' budgets. With this development, they have something to bark at.
VOTE FALLOUT
More on the vote that rocked the Roundhouse--the defeat in the Senate Finance Committee Saturday of the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act on an 8-3 vote. We blogged of the surprise yesterday. Today we get this from from a Senior Alligator at the capitol:
Joe HB 11 was dead from the start because local advocates became lobbyists for out of state special interest groups that go state by state passing the same template for the PFML. They wanted no changes and did not fight Senate Finance.
House Speaker Javier Martinez had the bill cut in half, giving a victory to business by taking employee leave from 12 weeks to 6 weeks and providing free maternity leave of $9,000 per newborn. That cash assistance was in lieu of a paycheck for either parent who had a job and who would have qualified for PFML. This would not have been overly expensive because it would not cover all 22,000 births per year. That is a different issue for a different session. The expense could have been covered by the huge growth in surplus revenue. This amended version of HB 11 passed the House on a vote of 38-31 and would have not gone into effect until 2028. Senate Finance Chair Muñoz was mistaken. This was not a bill “wanting it all" but a reasonable compromise.
This is the Home of New Mexico Politics.