LANL MSC members in Washington, D.C., from left, Jeff Lunsford, Joseph Sanchez, Liddie Martinez, Floyd Archuleta and Aaron Scutt. Courtesy photo

LANL MSC News:

• Local Subcontractors Trip to DC Yields Big Results in Protecting Local Businesses from Contract Loss

The Los Alamos National Laboratory Major Subcontractors Consortium (LANL MSC), a collaborative of the 35 largest LANL subcontractors travelled to Washington, D.C. the week of Feb. 9 to speak to the New Mexico Congressional delegation and DOE leadership regarding two issues, the environmental clean-up transition from NNSA LANS to DOE’s Environmental Management (EM) division, and strategic sourcing via nationwide vendors rather than local New Mexico businesses.

A central focus of the conversations was the potential impact of the change in management of environmental cleanup at the Los Alamos DOE site and the impact that discarding existing contracts with local businesses could have on the economy of northern New Mexico.

Following the Feb. 14, 2014 waste release incident at WIPP, DOE announced that environmental management work at the LANL site would be transferred from the NNSA to the DOE’s EM. This transfer could negatively impact the existing contracts held by local and small subcontractors.

One week after the LANL MSC delegation returned from Washington, Pete Maggiore, Assistant Manager of the Environmental Projects Office at the NNSA Los Alamos Field Office publicly acknowledged during the Feb. 19 ETEEBA meeting held in Santa Fe that, “The DOE EM got the message that the LANS ADEP MTOA contracts will be utilized for environmental cleanup work under the DOE EM Bridge contract with LANS, LLC.”

Responding to this news, Liddie Martinez, president of the LANL MSC said, “This is a great victory for the LANL MSC, and all of New Mexico. This shows that collaboration between communities, the public and private sector can have an impact.”

President Martinez also expressed appreciation for the united support on these issues, saying, “The MSC is very proud to work closely with our partners including the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities and the Regional Development Corporation on this initiative and for increasing clean up funding at the Lab. The MSC also wishes to express gratitude to State Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard for sponsoring House Joint Memorial 9, which is helping to bring state and federal attention to these issues. This latest news shows that our collective advocacy efforts locally and in DC can save and grow our jobs locally!”

The LANL MSC is a collaborative of the 35 largest LANL Subcontractors who pool and designate their individual corporate resources toward diversifying Northern New Mexico’s economy. Specifically, the MSC advocates for economic growth in northern New Mexico and has developed Consortium’s Economic Development Grant pool, established in 2006 that provides direct grants to local governments and non-profit organizations working  towards the region’s economic development.