Both of New Mexico’s national laboratories are looking at budget increases in the upcoming fiscal year.

That’s especially significant as other national laboratories — largely those managed by the Office of Science, rather than the National Nuclear Security Administration — face, in some cases, substantial cuts.

As more detailed budget documents emerge, the Department of Energy’s priorities are coming further into focus: Proposed spending on energy programs, particularly renewable energy, is expected to fall by 25%, and money for weapons development is up 25%.

While weapons are the heavy hitters in the budget for Los Alamos National Laboratory, accounting for about two-thirds of its total workforce last year, other employees work in science and technology, studying everything from energy to physics to artificial intelligence. The proposed Department of Energy budget, however, suggests a rewiring of the whole national laboratory system — Sandia National Laboratories and LANL included. Sandia also has confirmed workforce cuts are coming.

“This is a turning of the ship for DOE,” said Los Alamos Study Group Executive Director Greg Mello.

The three National Nuclear Security Administration laboratories — Sandia, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — all have overall proposed budget increases.

But not all programs are winners. In the past fiscal year, millions of dollars were spent on energy efficiency and renewable energy programs at Sandia and LANL; that may change.

Budget documents for the 2026 fiscal year show a proposed $0 for each of the laboratories’ work on renewable energy and energy efficiency.

In the past fiscal year, the Sandia and Los Alamos labs were given $49.7 million and $7.8 million, respectively, to use on technologies like geothermal, wind and solar, according to the congressional justification document. That made up about 1.4% of Sandia’s $3.4 billion budget from the Department of Energy for the fiscal year, and less than a percent of LANL’s $4.9 billion budget.

Spokesperson Kenny Vigil confirmed Sandia National Laboratories was planning a “voluntary separation program” for its nearly 17,000 employees, hoping to cut forces by between 1% and 3%.

“Sandia is taking proactive steps to ensure the labs’ long-term sustainability and continue delivering on its critical national security mission,” Vigil wrote in an email to The New Mexican.

In addition, Sandia is planning to limit external hiring, instead opting for internal placements “based on individual skills and mission needs” in an effort to cut costs.

The voluntary separation plan requires approval from the NNSA; once approval is granted, details of the offer will be shared directly with employees. It’s currently unclear if all or just some Sandia employees will receive the offer.

The reorganization is expected to be done by early fall.

A LANL spokesperson directed questions about the proposed cuts to energy efficiency and renewable energy programs to the Department of Energy. The agency did not respond to questions from The New Mexican.

Last week, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., questioned Energy Secretary Chris Wright on President Donald Trump’s proposed budget and potential cuts to the national laboratories, which he said could “severely damage our country’s ability to lead in developing and commercializing next generation technologies, while ceding ground to our competitors.”

Wright said cuts were difficult decisions, and at the time, the budget had not been broken down on a lab-by-lab basis.

“This budget, unfortunately, comes from the tough world we’re in today, where we, the American taxpayers, pay $1 in tax and the federal government spends $1.30,” Wright responded. “That’s just an unsustainable problem we’re on.”

Wright said the plan wasn’t intended to gut science and technology at the national laboratories. He shared Heinrich’s support of the facilities, he said, and his goal was to “grow, not shrink” their basic science research.

He later said he was “open” to expanding the proposed laboratory budget.

“But do we need to be a little wiser and get the political science, not the real science, out of our labs? Do we need to be a little bit more efficient running labs?” he asked. “We do.”

The idea of shifting away from non-nuclear work at the NNSA labs isn’t new; the Project 2025 report floated the idea, albeit with little detail, ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

For Sandia, the overall budget increase would only amount to about 1%. LANL’s would be more substantial.

For the Northern New Mexico lab, which has seen a growing budget over the past several years, the proposed budget from the Energy Department is $5.7 billion, a more than 17% increase over the last fiscal year.

It’s the highest year-over-year increase proposed for a national laboratory; the majority face smaller budgets this year, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, which faces a cut of 56%. In May, Colorado Public Radio reported at least 114 employees at the renewable energy-focused lab had been laid off.

Already a large part of LANL’s budget, weapons modernization programs are expected to see a massive increase, as funding jumps from $4 billion in fiscal year 2025 to a proposed $5 billion in the upcoming fiscal year.

“At Los Alamos, there’s quite a sharpening of mission in the weapons directions,” Mello said. “It was already nearly all weapons, but now it’s really nearly all weapons. ...This is the Trump budget: They’re slashing renewable energy, they’re slashing science that they think is not of focus value.”