DOGE-proof: Congress moves to protect nuclear weapons workers from layoffs

Source: USA Today

Updated July 24, 2025, 12:21 p.m. ET


Employees at the government agency responsible for designing, building and maintaining nuclear weapons may soon have legal protection from the wave of layoffs sweeping the federal government under President Donald Trump.

A draft defense bill in the Senate includes a provision that, if signed into law, will reclassify National Nuclear Security Administration workers as "necessary to meet national security responsibilities." The agency, whose less than 1,900 federal employees oversee a contract workforce of more than 60,000, plays a pivotal role in a $1.7 trillion push to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

The new classification would protect the NNSA from future layoffs stemming from the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk. A joint memo from the Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget directing the cuts exempts national security positions.

The NNSA lost more than 130 of its 2,000 federal employees earlier this year due to the DOGE deferred resignation program, and in mid-February, more than 300 workers were chaotically fired and then reinstated.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/07/24/nuclear-weapons-workers-protected-doge-cuts/85258659007/