The U.S. Department of Energy has furloughed 1,400 federal employees from

the National Nuclear Security Administration as the government shutdown hit its 20th day, Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced Monday.

It’s the first time in its 25-year history the NNSA has seen employees furloughed, Wright said Monday in Las Vegas, Nev.

New Mexico is home to two NNSA laboratories — Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories — as well as two NNSA field offices. The potential impacts in the state from furloughs were not immediately clear.

However, Department of Energy contract workers — common in Nevada as well as in New Mexico — should be funded until at least the end of the month, Wright said, due to “creative” funding wrangling.

“This was as long as we could stretch th

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