In a letter today, nearly two-dozen lawmakers bemoaned the firings of 70 probationary employees at NIST and the ongoing reduction-in-force efforts by the Trump Administration that could target additional probationary scientists, postdoctoral researchers, and other staff authorized by the CHIPS Act.
The letter from 22 members of the US House of Representatives to US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said the potential changes come on the heels of the deferred resignation program, which already is affecting the capacity of the NIST to fulfill its statutory obligations. “Removing national and international leaders from the nonpartisan and professional civil service at NIST would hamper the development of critical standards, threaten industrial and consumer safety, and weaken American leadership around the world,” the letter said.
In 2021, the years-long decline in domestic chip production was exposed by a worldwide supply-chain crisis that led to calls for re-shoring manufacturing to the US. After more than a year of work from the Biden Administration to respond to acute semiconductor shortages, Congress in August 2022 passed the measure.
This story originally appeared on Computerworld
