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One of several wide-ranging executive orders introduced in the first weeks of the current presidential administration has had initial impacts at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, according to comments from that facility’s director in a recent congressional hearing.
LLNL Director Kimberly Budil joined her counterparts from the Idaho, Los Alamos and Argonne national laboratories for a hearing by the House Subcommittee on Energy Feb. 12 in which all four directors provided updates on activities at their respective sites and took questions from representatives.
One of those questions came from Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas) about the impacts of the recent federal ban on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and the labs’ responses, which included shuttering their DEI offices, laying off and reassigning staff, and making organizational adjustments to comply with the new federal requirements.
“Our situation is similar to what’s described by the other labs,” Budil said. “We did have an office that we closed. That small team of people spent most of their time really working on workforce engagement and building that sense of community and teamwork that’s so critical to doing big team science the way we do, and so we have restructured our program and directed them to other activities.”
“So that’s the main impact for us, and I’ll just say that the critical importance of bringing together a broad range of ideas, of backgrounds, of experiences, is really how we drive excellence in our laboratories, so we’re very strongly focused on continuing that focus on excellence,” she continued.
Budil did not include additional details on what office had been closed, or whether the closure had necessitated any layoffs. While the other lab directors also said that they had sought to restructure their existing efforts to comply with the new federal regulations, Argonne National Laboratory Director Paul Kearns said that the closure of his site’s DEI office had necessitated letting some employees go.
Less than a year ago, LLNL was granted a bronze seal from the California State Bar for its commitment to DEI measures, led by the lab’s Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity and Accountability (IDEA) Office.
“This Bronze Leadership Seal from the California State Bar underscores our steadfast dedication to IDEA at LLNL,” said Sashalla Lemond, workforce engagement manager for IDEA in a press release on July 29. “Our focus on fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace is essential to our mission and success. We are committed to continuing and expanding our IDEA efforts, ensuring that every individual at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has the opportunity to thrive and contribute to our collective achievements.”
