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(PNNL Photo)
The Trump administration’s government-wide layoffs are hitting engineers and researchers at agencies in Washington state including the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Bonneville Power Administration and elsewhere.
The cuts are being driven by multiple initiatives, including Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and executive orders that eliminate efforts associated with climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion.
“We are talking about safety engineers at the Hanford nuclear cleanup site, VA doctors and nurses, utility line workers in my home state, [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] health experts who investigate disease outbreaks, and so many others,” said U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in a statement.
The exact numbers of local layoffs were not immediately available. Murray, who is the Senate Appropriations Committee vice chair and Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development ranking member, shared national data. The numbers don’t include workers who participated in the “Fork in the Road” program for those who voluntarily quit their federal jobs, unless otherwise noted.
The U.S. Department of Energy has laid off 1,800 employees, according to Murray, which amounts to approximately 11% of its national workforce.
Murray said a “handful of employees at PNNL” were let go. We reached out to PNNL for more details and a spokesperson referred us to the DOE. We’ll update this story if we hear back.
PNNL employs 6,437 scientists, engineers and others at sites in Eastern Washington, Seattle, the Olympic Peninsula and two Oregon sites. The lab has expertise in computational and math sciences; chemical and material sciences; engineering; earth and biological sciences; and advanced instrumentation. Discoveries at PNNL have helped spawn more than 200 startups.
Last summer, PNNL celebrated the opening of the Grid Storage Launchpad, a $75 million facility doing research to help meet rapidly rising energy demands.
The multi-billion dollar Hanford cleanup is also under DOE’s purview. More than a dozen workers were laid off from Hanford, which is contaminated with radioactive waste produced during plutonium production started in World War II.
The DOE’s Bonneville Power Administration oversees power distribution from 31 hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest and the maintenance of 15,000 miles of high-voltage power lines. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that the BPA could lose roughly 600 employees or 20% of its workforce through layoffs, rescinded job offers, and voluntary resignations.
Washington’s U.S. representatives Dan Newhouse, a Republican, and Marie Gluesenkamp, a Democrat, in January proposed an act to help retain BPA’s workers.
NOAA, a U.S. Department of Commerce agency that calls itself “America’s environmental intelligence agency,” is reportedly laying off 10% of its workforce. NOAA provides weather forecasts and climate data, while also helping manage U.S. fisheries.
NOAA has 12,000 personnel globally. Its Western Regional Center is in Seattle, and it has additional offices in the area.
Other cuts raising alarm in the Pacific Northwest include U.S. Forest Service impacts that are reducing the number of firefighters that battle wildfire blazes, and layoffs with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, whose local initiatives include toxic cleanups and salmon recovery.
There are additional concerns about ongoing and threatened freezes of federal funding for U.S. agencies and grant recipients. Multiple federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to release allocated funds, but dollars are still being withheld.
KOMO News reports that federal workers are rallying on Monday at an event called “Save Our Civil Service” held from noon to 2 p.m. at the Henry Jackson Federal Building at 915 2nd Ave. in downtown Seattle.
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