"Department heads have been asked to justify the roles of the contractors on their team in one-sentence summaries describing why they should be kept on" one of the officials working for the National Nuclear Security Administration" said .
https://www.yahoo.com/news/doge-reviews-nuclear-contractors-212923306.html
10 comments:
Somehow LANL and LLNL worked just fine under UC only for 50 years or more and the we added all these contractors, our prices when through the roof, the quality of science declined, the number of people went up, and massive wast and so on.
Everyone at NNSA labs knows there are problems and have been since 2004.
Years after the transition from the non-profit UC/LLNL to the for-profit LANSLLNS occurred, DOE Leadership admitted the failed for-profit model should be changed in favor of a new science and engineering focused non-profit contractor model. A DOGE recommendation to non-profit Labs would be welcome by most lab employees NOT directly benefiting deluxe, from the for-profit lab structure. “The sky is falling” response by NNSA to contractor changes is pure BS.
Contractors employees such as LANS and LLNS are apparently targeted. Keeping everyone will be a hard sell no matter what their function is.
Well, trump told us but some of us voted for him anyway!
"Contractors employees such as LANS and LLNS are apparently targeted. Keeping everyone will be a hard sell no matter what their function is.
Well, trump told us but some of us voted for him anyway!"
I get it but they hired way too many people and much lower quality people over the past 10 years.
Truth be told, there is a lot of overhead and waste. An honest review is long overdue. That said, I don't think the this is implemented by the current administration in the best way, judging from what is happening in other agencies.
To be perfectly honest, I am extremely hard-pressed to come up with any meaningful justification for the Washington “Feds” or the local area offices within the DOE and NNSA. They are classic bureaucracies who live like parasites on the backs of a dwindling number of high-grade scientists.
Did you actually read the article? It is talking about support staff at NNSA HQ or field offices, not the labs themselves. Also, typical of the MSM, they make the argument that more bureaucrats and more bureaucracy is needed to get the contractors to perform work faster. I can assure you that that is not the case, despite what Jill and the other Biden appointees seem to think. They live in a fantasy, upside-down world where Federal paper pushers are the heros getting the real work done.
And your proof for that statement is?
If they're talking about "1,400 support service contract employees," they're talking about NNSA direct support contractors, not Lab contractors.
"And your proof for that statement is?
3/17/2025 9:44 AM"
Drop in the number of publications over the last 10 years even though the number of people who could publish is going up, they have a report on this. Drop in the quality of universities where people get the degrees from. We use to get 20% from the top 10 universities now it is 2%. Drop in the quality of positions postdocs are getting their next positions. We have more postdocs than ever but far fewer are getting jobs at universities or top industry. Also the more people turn down the named LANL postdoc fellows. These are some of the highest postdoc position in the world and LANL gives 2-4 a year but most external people are now turning these down and they have to be given to postdocs already at the lab. People get excited when they first get these but then look into LANL and turn it down. We are getting more and more of this.
Drop in the number of external awards and prizes that LANL staff receive. This was noticed in several recent capability reviews. LANL would typical get 5-10 APS fellows every years. Now it is 2-1.
The other is increase in the number failed drug tests, and the large turnover rate as the quality if now so bad.
There is the personal experience that LANL people agree it is just much harder get good people to go to LANL now for any kind of positions. There are all sorts of indicators of the decline of the workforce.
There are many reasons for this.
Post a Comment