Elon Musk fires 350 DOE employees for "error" in the United States; how does this affect the agency?

The administration of Elon Musk as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, in English) has added a new controversy to its short but significant series of actions to save resources within the U.S. government. 

Just a few days ago, the entrepreneur also fired about 350 employees from the Department of Energy (DOE, in English) through the DOGE, believing that these individuals were undergoing probation periods within the organization or were only administrative staff. 

However, as has become customary in other decisions made by Musk regarding his actions of firing and then investigating, hours later it was revealed that among these layoffs were experts in nuclear warhead assembly, weapons control, nuclear waste, among others. 

What will happen to those fired by Elon Musk? 

Following the revelation of the dismissals, which are part of the 2,000 employees who were removed from their duties at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA, in English), belonging to the DOE, the Pantex plant in Texas became one of the most affected. 

This was due to the 30% reduction in the workforce responsible for warhead assembly and maintenance. Similarly, this action affects the modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, a $750 billion initiative aimed at adding new armament tools to the project.  

However, the director of the NNSA, Teresa Robbins, a few days after the wave of layoffs, issued a statement where she reversed 72% of the cuts. The leader's message has not been able to reverse the effect created by Elon Musk and his agency, as a large number of rehired employees have not been able to return to their positions, others are reconsidering returning, and a small group has not been rehired. 

Additionally, thanks to a report by The Associated Press, it was revealed that a large number of the dismissed employees were unaware of this decision until after they were asked for their employee accounts. 

DOGE: in the "eye of the storm" 

The actions taken by DOGE created great outrage among DOE and NNSA executives, who even expressed their displeasure through digital platforms like LinkedIn. In addition to this, thousands of people mocked Musk on social media for putting into "practice" his policy of firing and then investigating through the DOGE. 

It is important to remember that the DOGE is not considered a cabinet-level department. It is established as a temporary contracted organization under the US DOGE Service, formerly known as Digital Service. 

*This article has been automatically translated using AI