Layoff notices held for federal employees

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Saturday, Sept. 6, 1997 | 9:20 a.m.

The 90 were among 1,500 federal employees that were targeted for elimination in a budget reduction plan.

Pena ordered agency managers late Friday not to issue layoff notices to the employees.

Energy Department officials had said 60-day layoff notices could be issued as early as Friday.

But in a memo to agency employees, Pena said, "The budget battle is not over, but we are holding the notices back because we are hopeful, based on recent conversations with key members of Congress, that the worst-case scenario may not occur."

The Nevada Operations Office oversees activities at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where the nation tested its nuclear weapons from 1951 until President Bush signed a moratorium in 1992. That moratorium has been extended indefinitely by President Clinton.

Employment at the Nevada Operations Office has dropped annually since the moratorium was imposed.