This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

National Labs Unaffected by Possible Government Shutdown

Unspecified funds allow operations to continue without staff furloughs.

The Department of Energy is downplaying a threat of a federal government shutdown on operations at the and California national laboratories.

The DOE announced in a statement Thursday that none of its employees or contractors would be furloughed next week in the event of a federal government shutdown Friday. Federal agencies would be forced to cease nonessential services Monday, if Congress is unable to pass a long-stalled fiscal year 2011 federal budget.

Federal spending has been authorized by a series of short extensions since the previous budget expired in October. Congressional leaders announced progress Thursday in contentious deliberations for a budget, but a government shutdown remains a possibility when the current two-week extension expires Friday.

Find out what's happening in Livermorewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The DOE statement noted the department has some “no-year” funds that would support department operations for a limited time. DOE chairman Steven Chu announced in a department-wide memo Thursday that DOE federal employees are expected to report to work as usual on their next scheduled work day even if a new funding bill is not enacted Friday.

Paul Hommert, president and laboratories director of Sandia in Albuquerque, N.M., touched on the same themes in a staff memo. Unspent funds can be used to pay regular employees and part-time personnel in the short term, he noted.

Find out what's happening in Livermorewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The same situation applies at LLNL, said Lynda Seaver, media and communications manager. As a government contractor, lab management can draw on cash reserves for new operations.

“We have enough to support ourselves for a while, so everyone will report to work on Monday," Seaver said. “But we will await further guidance from the Department of Energy on what we should be doing.”

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a government-owned, contractor-operated research facility managed through a contact between Lawrence Livermore National Security, a public-private consortium, and the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

According to its 2010 annual report, LLNL funding largely comes from the NNSA Office of Defense Programs. Other key funding sources are the NNSA Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defenses and other federal agencies.

Sandia California is also part of the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Research conducted the Sandia lab involves energy, homeland security, nuclear weapons management and nuclear nonproliferation. It is managed for NNSA by defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?