Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON -- While the overall budget of the Department of Energy (DOE) would grow by 3.7 percent in President Bush’s new budget request for fiscal year 2009, the President’s plan shrinks DOE spending in New Mexico by 6.8 percent, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) said today. 

Bingaman is chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has oversight of DOE. Bingaman has called Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman to testify on DOE’s budget before the Committee on Wednesday, February 6. 

“I applaud some of the overall increases in the DOE budget, particularly for science programs. There are other DOE programs of importance to New Mexico, though, which do not fare so well, and I plan to ask Secretary Bodman about them when he appears before the committee on Wednesday,” Bingaman said. 

The president’s budget request would result in about $4..2 billion of spending from all DOE programs in New Mexico in FY 2008, down from the $4.5 billion appropriated for FY 2008 and even below the $4.4 billion that was appropriated for the DOE in New Mexico in FY 2007. 

The President’s budget request would result in about $4.2 billion of spending from all DOE programs in New Mexico in FY 2009, down from the $4.5 billion voted by Congress for DOE in New Mexico in the current fiscal year. This includes a decline in spending at Los Alamos National Laboratory from $1.852 billion in this fiscal year to $1.838 billion in the new budget request from the President. The total for Sandia National Laboratories would grow slightly, from $1.403 billion to $1.428 billion. 

Some of the cuts come in programs that have been traditionally important to New Mexico. At both Los Alamos and Sandia, cuts are proposed for advanced scientific computing for defense purposes, and in nuclear nonproliferation and verification research and development. 

“I can’t think of a worse time in world history, with unprecedented concerns about nuclear weapons development in countries like Iran and North Korea, for us to be cutting nonproliferation R&D activities. I also don’t see why we are cutting out the advanced scientific computing that our New Mexico labs excel in,” Bingaman stated. 

Another surprising cut is in the renewable energy programs at Sandia National Laboratories – in the President’s new budget request, renewable and energy efficiency funding at this lab is cut from $46.4 million to $43.6 million. 

“I can’t understand why Sandia is being cut in its renewable energy programs at a time when the underlying programs at DOE are growing,” Bingaman said. 

The proposed DOE budget proposes to zero out DOE's support of weatherization activities carried out at the state and local level. This results in a $220 million loss to the program in the upcoming fiscal year, which is distributed by formula to all 50 States. New Mexico currently receives about $1.9 million in this fiscal year for weatherization programs, which allows over 700 low-income dwellings in the State to be improved in terms of their energy efficiency. 

“It’s hard to fathom why this program is being terminated by the DOE now – a lot of households need help reducing their energy bills, and the work of insulating their homes creates residential construction jobs that are greatly needed right now, too,” Bingaman stated. “I am working to get weatherization funding for an additional 77,000 dwellings nationwide into the economic stimulus package before the Senate, so the program can help over 162,000 households this year. I will certainly urge my colleagues to reverse DOE’s ill-timed budget cut for next year.” 

Bingaman reported that the budget proposes an increase in funding for the Office of Science by some 18.8 percent or $748.82 million and reflects some of the goals of the America COMPETES Act he helped get signed into law last year. The new law encourages an increase investment in scientific research and development with an eye toward keeping the country on the cutting edge, and helping generate the jobs of the future. 

While overall funding for the Office of Science will increase for 2008, LANL and Sandia will not see proportional increases. At LANL, Office of Science Funding will increase only 7.5 percent or only $4.2 million while at Sandia it would grow by only $4.5 million or roughly 8.8 percent. 

Bingaman was also very concerned by trends in DOE’s renewable energy spending at Sandia National Laboratories, which continued to decline to drop 6 percent from the FY 2008 level of $46.4 million to $43.6 million. 

Bingaman expressed disappointment that Solid State Lighting R&D was funded at the same level as last year’s request - $19 million - when lighting accounts for some 20 percent of electricity used in the United States and advanced lighting is seen worldwide as a key technology for the future. Sandia does significant R&D in this area. 

“We need to help get this research off the ground, so that we do not forfeit to other countries this potential $12 billion annual market,” Bingaman said. 

Bingaman also expressed concern about the enormous increases proposed for reprocessing of nuclear fuel in the new budget at $302 million after the Congress scaled by last year’s request from $395 million to $179 million based on the fact that there was inadequate planning and R&D to justify the overall scope of the program. 

Snapshot of the president’s proposed DOE budget for next year:
 
  FY2008 Appropriated FY09 Request

•   Los Alamos National Laboratory $1.85 billion $1.83 billion
•   NNSA Service Center in NM $992.42 million $701.16 million
•   Sandia $1.40 billion $1.43 billion
•   WIPP $213.02 million $188.79 million
•   Carlsbad Field Office $33.58 million $36.06 million
•   Los Alamos Site Office $17.67 million $20.60 million
•   Sandia Site Office $13.68 million $15.0 million

 
  New Mexico Total (not necessarily a sum) $4.54 billion $4.23 billion