Before the federal agency that builds nuclear weapons and safeguards the nation’s nuclear stockpile ran out of funding, officials there made an urgent request to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget: Use money from previously passed spending bills to prevent the agency from having to furlough its staff, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
The National Nuclear Security Administration’s request has not been fulfilled, the sources said, despite similar funding being used to pay US troops, Customs and Border Protection, US Coast Guard agents and other federal law enforcement officials.
Last week, NNSA furloughed most of its full-time staff, about 1,400 people — marking the first time this critical national security agency has ever experienced furloughs during a shutdown.
“While the administration was able to identify funds to keep NNSA weapons laboratories, plants, and sites operating with our contractors, legal and budgetary limitations required the administration to begin furloughing NNSA federal employees,” a spokesperson for the Department of Energy, which oversees NNSA, said in a statement.
That came as a surprise to some within the agency, where roughly $20 billion of its $25 billion budget goes
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