Local feds clam up about workforce cuts

Representatives of federal agencies in north central Idaho and southeastern Washington generally refused to disclose how many local employees lost their jobs Thursday and Friday.

Of those contacted by the Lewiston Tribune, only the Army Corps of Engineers was willing to say. None of the employees of the Walla Walla District that covers eastern Washington and Idaho were laid off, according to corps spokesperson Dylan Peters.

Spokespersons from other federal agencies with a presence in the region either declined to release a number or did not respond at all. Those who declined cited employment privacy rules and regulations.

“Per our long-standing rule, we don’t discuss personnel matters,” said Rachel Hager, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at Seattle.

Personnel disclosure rules generally pertain to information about individual employees but not generic workforce data. But the U.S. Forest Service also declined to say if or how many employees at the Nez Perce-Clearwater and Umatilla national forests were dismissed.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., described the dismissals as mass firings in a news release. She said recently hired Department of Energy employees at the Bonneville Power Administration, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation were laid off.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that the firings, when combined with the number of people who accepted requests to resign in exchange of 8 months of pay, could cull Bonneville’s workforce by 20%.

“The callousness of this administration is breathtaking — these mass layoffs pose a serious threat to our energy security and the health and safety of people across our state, not to mention the livelihoods of so many hardworking families who have done nothing wrong and whose work is sorely needed,” Murray said in the news release.

Other news reports indicated 3,400 people at the U.S. Forest Service and 2,300 employed at Department of Interior agencies lost their jobs.

In Idaho, the federal government employed about 13,700 people in fiscal year 2023, the latest full year for which numbers are available. That included 182 from Nez Perce County, 127 in Clearwater County, 308 in Idaho County, 165 in Latah County and 73 in Lewis County.

Washington state had a fiscal year 2023 federal workforce of about 77,300, including 71 in Asotin County, 132 in Garfield County and 222 in Whitman County.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com.