Earlier today (May 2, 2025) President Donald Trump released his discretionary budget request for the fiscal year 2026. Please find the letter from the Administration to the Committee on Appropriations Chair, the Honorable Susan Collins, with the budget attached, by clicking here. See highlights relevant to ECA members below:
DOE-EM: "The EM program performs activities at 14 active cleanup sites and operates a geologic disposal facility (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
near Carlsbad, New Mexico). The EM topline is being reduced by $389 million, which reflects a reduction of about $178 million for the transfer of responsibility from the EM program to the National Nuclear Security Administration for the Savannah River site in South Carolina, where plutonium pit production capabilities would be developed. The Budget maintains the Hanford site in Washington at the 2025 enacted level but reduces funding for various cleanup activities at other sites." - $389
million cut
DOE-Office of Science: "The Budget reduces funding for climate change and Green New Scam research. The Budget maintains U.S. competitiveness in priority areas such as high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, quantum information science, fusion, and critical minerals." - $1.14 billion cut
DOE-NE: "The Budget reduces funding for non-essential research on nuclear energy to focus on what is truly needed to achieve national dominance in nuclear technology. This includes developing innovative concepts for nuclear reactors, researching advanced nuclear fuels, and maintaining the capabilities of the Idaho National Laboratory." - $408 million cut
NNSA's budget is untouched with
this note, "The Administration assumes at least $325 billion ($175 billion for border security/non-defense and $150 billion for defense) will be enacted in a reconciliation bill later this year to meet these instructions and the funds will supplement discretionary resources for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, as well as the National Nuclear Security Administration in the Department of Energy for fiscal years 2026-2034. For 2026, the Administration assumes approximately
$163.1 billion of these funds will be spent with $119.3 billion for defense activities and $43.8 billion for border/non-defense activities."
See the topline numbers for the Department of Energy below (numbers in billions):
Department of Energy (DOE)
- 2025 Enacted: $49.8
- 2026 Request: $45.1
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- 2025 Enacted: $24.0
- 2026 Request: $24.0
Other DOE
- 2025 Enacted: $25.8
- 2026 Request: $21.1
NNSA, including reconciliation resources
- 2025 Enacted: $24.0
- 2026 Request:
$30.0
See the programs within DOE experiencing funding cuts below (numbers in millions):
- IIJA -$15,247
- Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy - $2,572
- Office of Science - $1,148
- Environmental Management - $389
- Advanced Research Project Agency - Energy - $260
- Office of Nuclear Energy - $408
- Office of Fossil Energy - $207
ECA will continue to provide more updates as further details about the budget are clarified.
