Trump’s proposed funding level for Department of Energy would reduce PNNL’s budget by a staggering a 35 percent
***WATCH FULL EVENT HERE***
***PHOTOS AND B-ROLL FROM PNNL TOUR AND PRESS CONFERENCE HERE***
Kennewick, WA – 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.
“At a time when we should be celebrating PNNL’s rich legacy of innovation and discovery, President Trump is trying to destroy it with painful, pointless cuts,” Senator Murray said at the press conference today. “Trump’s budget would absolutely gut PNNL—slashing DOE investments by over a third, with funding for some programs eliminated out right. That would devastate groundbreaking research, not to mention the entire Tri-Cities economy, and the thousands of people whose jobs would be put on the chopping block. The Trump budget would mean more than 1,000 jobs lost here at PNNL. And nationally, across the entire lab system—it would be a whopping 7,700 jobs wiped out by Trump. And let’s not forget—it’s not just the cuts Trump has proposed, there’s also the billions in funding he is freezing, or redirecting—across the federal government, with no regard for the consequences, or the law. We passed into law significant investment in major wind, solar, vehicle technologies, and biological and environmental research and development work that is happening at PNNL. And yet, Trump is trying to ignore our laws and block those investments.”
“I am making clear to absolutely everybody—that Trump’s vision is completely unacceptable,” Senator Murray continued. “President Trump wants to put us on the edge of cutting science to pieces, throwing away decades of expertise and world leadership, and sabotaging research for decades to come. Well, let me just say: Not as long as I have anything to say about it. And, as Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee, I have a lot to say about it. I’m going to rip up Trump’s budget and put where it belongs—the trash. And then, I’m going to do what I have always done: roll up my sleeve, reach across the aisle, and work on writing a bipartisan funding bill that protects investments in PNNL and the Tri-Cities, and saves the jobs President Trump is thoughtlessly seeking to eliminate.”
“Trump’s FY 2026 budget proposal calls for extreme cuts to non-defense spending, targeting funding for energy innovation, environmental research, and nuclear nonproliferation,” said Dr. Allison Campbell, Former Associate Laboratory Director for the Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate at PNNL. “If Trump’s budget was enacted as proposed, PNNL could lose more than 1,100 jobs – that is 20 percent of the lab’s employees. The budget request proposes $888 million, 74 percent below the Fiscal Year 2025 budget for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy —and entire programs, including clean energy initiatives, would be fully eliminated and all would be deeply cut. PNNL does significant work to advance energy efficiency and affordable, abundant energy technologies. DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Sciences budget request proposes $394 million below the Fiscal Year 2024 enacted budget and all but eliminates BER [Biological and Environmental Research]’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Programs, which is where nearly all of PNNL’s work is concentrated. The budget request also proposes to eliminate the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement user facility, which would erase 30 years of data sets from all 7 continents and 5 oceans that are critical to understanding the Earth’s atmosphere. Finally, the budget request proposes an $111 cut from Fiscal Year 2025 to Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, which is about keeping nuclear and radiological material out of the hands of adversaries and understanding what our adversaries are doing—a critical part of our nuclear security. This is the largest program at PNNL. Scaling back PNNL’s energy research undermines U.S. leadership in areas like grid modernization, affordable and abundant energy technologies, and earth and environmental resilience. National implications include risks of a brain drain, stalled innovation pipelines, and damage to long-term investments in clean energy, environmental sciences and nuclear threat reductions.”
“Hanford is home to the largest and most complex remediation projects in U.S. history. The workforce here includes thousands of scientists, engineers, crafts, and technicians with decades of specialized knowledge. Inadequate funding leads to slowed cleanup progress, particularly in the River Corridor. Staff reductions risk losing irreplaceable institutional memory, increasing future costs, and weakening project oversight. This isn’t just a workforce—it’s a culture of innovation, safety, and stewardship that’s been cultivated over decades,” said Chuck Torrelli, who retired from Hanford in 2011 after a 34-year career. Chuck is now Chair of Hanford Communities, a Member of the Hanford Advisory Board, and Mayor Pro Tem of Kennewick. “Hanford represents a spirit of endurance, innovation, and responsibility. It demands sustained federal commitment not just to finish the job, but to do it right—protecting communities, preserving institutional knowledge, and honoring the legacy of those who built and defended this nation. Deferring investments doesn’t save money—it compounds long-term risks and significantly increases future expenses. Consistent funding ensures progress, protects public health, and preserves the infrastructure necessary to see this mission through. As a Hanford worker who spent 30-plus years at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, I know the consequences when funding becomes volatile. Essential tasks that could have been accomplished in months became delayed for years. And it was never less expensive once funding was restored.”
“As we approach the tenth anniversary of LIGO’s first-ever detection of the space quakes launched from the merger of two black holes more than a billion years ago, Congress is asked by the administration to forfeit American preeminence in science and engineering. Proposed cuts to NSF, DOE Office of Science and NASA budgets would cause huge damage to research today and devastate early-career researchers,” said Dr. Fred Raab, former Associate Director for Observatory Operations of the LIGO Laboratory and the former head of LIGO Hanford Observatory. “Birthing the new field of gravitational-wave astronomy motivated and continues to advance innovations in lasers, optics and materials, space science, precision classical and quantum science and engineering, and information technology. It has allowed us to recruit and train some of the brightest innovators in the world, who then advance future technologies as they pursue careers in US tech, defense and space industries, national labs, colleges and universities. A single year of the proposed massive decreases in funding science and engineering will cause 1-2 decades of damage by throttling back this pipeline of students and early career researchers.”
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
“Thank you all for joining us today. It’s always a thrill to tour PNNL and get a glimpse of the future and today was no exception.
“I just had an incredible tour of the Grid Storage Launchpad Facility, where scientists are pushing the boundaries of energy storage and developing the next generation of batteries. This is work that will, literally, power innovation. And it’s just the latest example of how PNNL is leading the way to address national—and even global—challenges.
“This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. In that time, PNNL has made an incredible impact. Over 3,000 patents are connected to this work. Over 200 companies can trace their roots to PNNL. And it has helped develop breakthroughs we use in nuclear clean up, cancer treatment, national security, counter terrorism, energy, and so much more.
“But, despite all of that, at a time when we should be celebrating PNNL’s rich legacy of innovation and discovery, President Trump is trying to destroy it with painful, pointless cuts.
“Trump’s budget would absolutely gut PNNL—slashing DOE investments by over a third with funding for some programs eliminated outright. That would devastate groundbreaking research, not to mention the entire Tri-Cities economy and the thousands of people whose jobs would be put on the chopping block.
“The Trump budget would mean more than 1,000 jobs lost here at
PNNL. And nationally, across the entire lab system it would be a whopping 7,700 jobs wiped out by Trump.
“And let’s not forget—it’s not just the cuts Trump has proposed. There’s also the billions in funding he is freezing, or redirecting across the federal government, with no regard for the consequences or the law.
“We passed into law significant investment in major wind, solar, vehicle technologies, and biological and environmental research and development work that is happening at PNNL. And yet, Trump is trying to ignore our laws and block those investments. Even if it means pushing hardworking researchers out of the job and putting our country behind.
“Meanwhile, Trump’s budget would also hinder the Hanford cleanup at a critical time, leaving key milestones unmet, and raising the cost of the cleanup in the long run. Not to mention increasing the safety and environmental risks for the Tri-Cities.
“As long as I’m around, I’m going to fight to fund Hanford—to do right by the Tri-Cities, the entire state of Washington, and the workers who power this cleanup.
“So, I am making clear to absolutely everybody that Trump’s vision is completely unacceptable.
“Instead of keeping our nation on the cutting edge of science, President Trump wants to put us on the edge of cutting science to pieces, throwing away decades of expertise and world leadership, and sabotaging research for decades to come.
“Well let me just say: Not as long as I have anything to say about it. And, as Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee, I have a lot to say about it.
“My plan is simple. I’m going to rip up Trump’s budget and put where it belongs—the trash.
“And then, I’m going to do what I have always done—roll up my sleeves, reach across the aisle, and work on writing a bipartisan funding bill that protects investments in PNNL and the Tri-Cities, and saves the jobs President Trump is thoughtlessly seeking to eliminate.
“I won’t pretend this work is going to be easy. But there is bipartisan support to reject Trump’s cuts and protect our nation’s legacy as a research powerhouse.
“For example, Trump’s budget calls for shutting down a LIGO observatory like the one at Hanford. Does Trump care that this work won a Nobel Prize? Does Trump realize it has allowed us to observe gravitational waves, and detect black holes colliding—the kinds of breakthroughs that are practically sci-fi?
“Does Trump even understand that shutting one of our two LIGO facilities, basically shuts us out of the game entirely—since you need multiple labs, across great distances, working together to get a full picture?
“I’ll be honest—I doubt Trump has even heard of LIGO—let alone that he understands what it does, or why his plan to cut it is an astronomical mistake. But, there are members on both sides of the aisle who understand how shortsighted these cuts would be.
“Which is why, I worked in a bipartisan way to make sure our Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill resoundingly rejects Trump’s proposal, and instead reaffirms our support for the continued operation of LIGO’s Hanford observatory.
“Let’s be clear, we still have a long road ahead to get our bipartisan funding bills passed into law. But the progress we’ve made shows there is a bipartisan appetite to stand by our researchers. There is a bipartisan will to stand up to some of these absurd Trump cuts and stand for our country’s long history of innovation. And I am going be doing everything I can, to make sure that bipartisan consensus wins the day.
“Because the best way to honor the incredible 60-year legacy of PNNL is to continue building on it.”
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