Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON— U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today said President Obama has laid down a powerful marker with his plans for the Department of Energy (DOE).

While the overall federal budget is slated for significant deficit reductions in the president's new budget request for fiscal year 2012, the DOE portion of the budget would grow by 11.8 percent over FY 2010, and DOE investments in New Mexico would grow by an even larger percentage, 15.7 percent.

Bingaman is chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which has principal responsibility for the DOE.  Bingaman will call the Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, to testify on DOE's budget before the Committee on Wednesday, February 16.

"This Budget Request is the third consecutive time that President Obama has demonstrated his commitment to energy security, U.S. technological competitiveness, and nuclear weapons security imperatives, despite the tough fiscal environment we find ourselves in," Bingaman stated.  "This Budget Request merits vigorous support from anyone who cares deeply about securing our nation's energy future, boosting our economic growth and competitiveness in the world, and combating nuclear weapons proliferation."

The President's budget request would result in about $4.84 billion of spending from all DOE programs in New Mexico in FY 2012, up from the $4.18 billion voted by Congress for DOE in New Mexico in FY 2010.

Because of the inability of Congress to pass the normal appropriations Acts for FY 2011, the possibility of steep cuts to DOE and its New Mexico laboratories looms over the upcoming Congressional debate over federal spending.

"We are about to debate two very different visions of our energy and economic security future in Congress," Bingaman noted.  "The president's vision is to combine cuts and efficiencies in some existing programs with investments in areas, like energy, that are key to our future.  The other proposal is simply to pick an arbitrary past spending level and to terminate any investments that happen to be above that level.  President Obama's approach reflects what having a national energy policy is all about.  It is about making thoughtful and forward-leaning choices, and I strongly support it."

The president's proposed increases in programs at DOE's New Mexico laboratories would come not only in their traditional areas of strength in nuclear weapons activities and nuclear non-proliferation, but also in several civilian programs in the DOE budget that match well to the intellectual strengths at the laboratories.

In the Defense area, the two New Mexico laboratories will share a 19 percent increase in funding for Nuclear Weapons Activities, including major increases in three key sub-elements of this budget category:

• a 40 percent jump in funding for Directed Stockpile Work, which is proposed to increase to a combined total of $1.02 billion from the FY 2010 combined level of $728 million;
• a 17 percent increase in Defense Nuclear Security (which increases to a New Mexico total of $214 million from the FY 2010 level of $183 million); and
• a 33 percent increase in Readiness in Technical Base and Facilities (which is proposed to increase to $836 million from the FY 2010 level of $625 million).

"In the context of the successful ratification of the New START Treaty, President Obama has made a major commitment to our laboratories, which in the past have been underfunded and undervalued," Bingaman said.

The new Budget Request also contains a 19 percent increase over FY 2010 levels, representing new funding of over $400 million, for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation activities throughout the DOE.  This initiative will translate to a nearly 12 percent increase for these programs in New Mexico, rising to a total of $663 million from the current level of $593 million.  This is slightly less than the increase proposed a year ago, but the lower amount reflects both the fact that efforts to secure vulnerable nuclear materials covered by the FY 2011 request were accelerated and completed early and the fact that a detailed implementation plan for Russian plutonium disposition is still being worked out.

"Nuclear proliferation worldwide is one of our gravest security challenges and President Obama has given a high priority to preventing it.  I am frankly worried that the budget cuts being contemplated elsewhere in Congress will significantly delay our vital programs in this area and adversely affect our ability to respond to an international nuclear or radiological event," Bingaman said.

Beyond the traditional nuclear security missions of the New Mexico laboratories, the FY 2012 DOE Budget Request will bring increases in other areas of interest to the New Mexico laboratories.  This includes a projected 81 percent increase in environmental cleanup funds at Los Alamos National Laboratory, to a total of nearly $358 million, and a projected 10 percent increase in funding for civilian nuclear energy research and development (R&D) programs at both laboratories, which will rise to $67.5 million from the current level of $61.2 million.

Other civilian energy programs at the New Mexico laboratories are projected to have flat or slightly declining budgets, which is a matter of concern for Bingaman.

"The long-term health of the National Laboratories in New Mexico is dependent on maintaining broad-based excellence in energy as well as defense areas.  I plan to encourage Secretary Chu to keep this crucial balance in mind as plans for the current and next fiscal year go forward," Bingaman said.