Senator Murray Discusses How Republican Budget Cuts Would Be Devastating for PNNL, Hanford, and LIGO

Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, held a press conference at TRIDEC, immediately following a tour at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), to speak about how the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts, along with the cuts proposed by House Republicans, to the Department of Energy (DOE) and other critical agencies would be disastrous for PNNL and the Hanford cleanup mission.

President Trump’s budget request, as well as the funding bill drafted by House Republicans, would be devastating for PNNL and Hanford if enacted—PNNL is most dependent on some of the DOE programs that took the steepest cuts in President Trump’s budget, namely the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Biological and Environmental Research (BER), and Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN). Overall, President Trump’s requested cuts would result in a total budget reduction of $430 million for the PNNL compared to Fiscal Year 2024 enacted levels—a 35 percent cut. If cuts that steep were to go into effect, PNNL would be forced to lay off over 1,000 workers. The House Republican Energy and Water funding bill proposes hundreds of millions in cuts to the Hanford cleanup mission, cutting $779 million from the DOE’s environmental management which work which supports nuclear cleanup at 15 sites across the country, including Hanford.

In addition, last month Trump and DOE abruptly cut investments provided by Congress to support the research and development of wind and solar energy—in defiance of legislation President Trump himself signed into law in March—and illegally redirected the funds to other programs. In a spend plan made public by DOE, the administration revealed it was cutting wind energy initiatives by 78 percent and solar initiatives by 87 percent—many of these initiatives are housed at our national laboratories, including PNNL. The largest impacts for PNNL are across a suite of EERE programs—solar energy, wind energy, vehicle technologies, hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, and building technologies. PNNL has estimated that, if these cuts last through the end of the year, they will have to lay off up to 700 staff from EERE-supported programs alone. In light of so much funding uncertainty at the federal level from the Trump administration, PNNL has already had to take actions, including furloughing staff, to reduce costs.

Joining Senator Murray for the press conference today were: Dr. Allison Campbell, Former Associate Laboratory Director for the Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate at PNNL; Chuck Torelli, Chair of Hanford Communities, Member of the Hanford Advisory Board and Mayor Pro Tem of Kennewick; Dr. Fred Raab, former Associate Director for Observatory Operations of the LIGO Laboratory and the former head of LIGO Hanford Observatory; and David Reeploeg, Vice President for Federal Programs at the Tri-City Development Council (TRIDEC).

Earlier, on her tour of PNNL, Senator Murray saw the Grid Storage Launchpad, was built on PNNL’s campus to provide new research, development, and testing facilities for the next generation of energy storage and battery technologies. The facility is part of DOE’s efforts to modernize the electric grid and promote domestic innovation. Senator Murray secured over $75 million for construction of the Grid Storage Launchpad through annual appropriations bills between Fiscal Year 2020 and Fiscal Year 2022.