Senior Democratic members of the Senate and House Appropriations committees are demanding the Trump administration provide details on plans to fire scores of employees from the Department of Energy, warning that mass layoffs “will hurt communities across the country.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations panel, and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, called on the Trump administration in a Friday letter to “halt” all planned reductions in force and give them “detailed information” on potential layoffs.
“We write with outrage over the Department of Energy’s decision to move forward with reductions in force (RIFs) across critical program offices during the government shutdown in a clear act of political retribution that will hurt communities across the country,” Murray and Kaptur wrote in a letter to Energy Secretary Christopher Wright.
Murray is also ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.
They said the move, which will affect 179 employees, is part of a broader effort to “implement the administration’s budget request without congressional approval — circumventing the appropriations process and undermining congressional intent.”
They warned the layoffs would raise energy prices by disrupting the implementation of programs to increase supplies and reduce costs.
They said they were “alarmed” about how “mass firings might allow waste, fraud, and abuse as you eliminate key staff conducting oversight of programs.”
Murray and Kaptur wrote that the Energy Department has so far “refused to provide information” about the distribution of layoffs in offices such as the Offices of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the State Community Energy Programs and the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations.
Employees at those offices have been notified of impending terminations but have not been provided dates for when their jobs would end, creating “confusion and uncertainty throughout the department,” they noted.
“These RIFs would effectively dismantle the very offices responsible for lowering energy costs for American families and communities” and could jeopardize work to distribute $366 million per year through the Weatherization Assistance Program — a program that saves participating households an estimated $372 per year, they argued.
Murray and Kaptur warned the firings would end research and development programs in solar, wind and hydrogen technologies, undermining the affordability of clean energy programs.
“We demand you immediately halt all RIF actions and provide the committee with detailed information about the scope, timing and justification of these reductions,” they wrote, adding that they would like to see the department’s plan for implanting and overseeing programs managed by the offices targeted by the layoffs.
“DOE should be advancing America’s clean energy future and reducing energy costs for consumers — not dismantling the offices that make it possible,” they added.
The Democratic lawmakers asked that the department respond to their letter by Thursday.
