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Wright Warns NNSA Has About Eight Days of Funding in Shutdown Interview With Ingraham

October 2, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:04:16

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined Laura Ingraham on Fox News on October 2, 2025, during the federal government shutdown. Wright said Senate Democrats had no alternative strategy beyond obstruction, noting that more than twenty Energy Department officials needed Senate confirmation and that only two of his deputies had been confirmed when September arrived, including a dispute over the nominee who would oversee stewardship of the nuclear weapons stockpile, as he described it.

Asked what else could be cut at Energy, Wright said the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nuclear weapons stockpile and the engines powering nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers, had about eight more days of funding before emergency shutdown procedures would begin, which he called incredibly inefficient and a risk to the country. He said a continuing resolution had passed with bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate, as he stated it.

Responding to Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s argument that a shutdown gives the President no more authority to fire employees, Wright said furloughs follow from the law: an agency cannot spend money Congress has not legally allocated for its work. He said the department had already done efficiency work under the DOGE effort and could do more. He updated his confirmation count during the interview, saying Democrats had confirmed two of his twenty-two nominees, that Sen. John Thune had changed Senate rules to move nominees through, and that he was still missing five key people whom he described as popular business leaders lauded by Democrats.

Why it matters

The interview gives the Energy Secretary’s shutdown pressure point in his own words: a specific number of days of funding left for the agency that maintains the nuclear stockpile.

Scoreboard watch

Wright said on October 2, 2025 that the National Nuclear Security Administration had about eight more days of funding before emergency shutdown procedures would begin, as he stated the figure. The dated claim is recorded here as stated; no verdict is recorded.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Chris Wright Joins Laura Ingraham on Fox News– October 2, 2025”, 2025-10-02 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-10-02). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.