Padilla, Schiff, Lofgren Demand Reversal of Layoffs, Budget Cuts at National Laboratories
California lawmakers highlight potential harms to AI development and other cutting-edge research as the Trump Administration’s proposed $2.75 billion budget cut and seizure of existing funds trigger layoffs at labs across United States
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.), along with Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18), Ranking Member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, urged the Trump Administration to reverse the budget cuts that are triggering layoffs across the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Laboratories.
Across the 17 National Laboratories, California is home to four facilities, including labs that are critical to America’s development of artificial intelligence (AI), fusion energy, national security, and cutting-edge disease treatments.
“Due to unlawful reprogramming and the prospect of budget cuts as proposed by this administration’s budget request, labs have already started to lay off employees. National labs who have not yet begun layoffs have warned Congress that they may need to start laying off scientists in the near future. For the sake of America’s global leadership, we cannot afford to let this happen,” wrote the lawmakers.
The California lawmakers emphasized in their letter to the DOE and Office of Management and Budget that their budgetary decisions will harm not only American scientific innovation but also U.S. national security and economic competitiveness.
They also pointed to Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s own testimony to Congress earlier this year where he suggested he was “very open” to reducing the proposed cuts in the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget, which would cut funding by $2.75 billion for the labs. This amounts to an 11 percent reduction in funding compared to Fiscal Year 2024.
Last week, Senator Padilla cosponsored Senator Ben Ray Luján’s (D-N.M.) legislation to invest in maintenance projects and infrastructure improvements at America’s National Labs. Specifically, the legislation would authorize funding for deferred maintenance projects and infrastructure improvements throughout the DOE’s National Laboratory system to support the technological capacity of the laboratories while also creating local jobs in construction and equipment supply. Last month, during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee budget hearing, Padilla pressed Secretary Wright on his previously stated support for the United States’ national labs — including premier research institutions in California — which Wright has called “crown jewels.” Padilla pushed Wright to preserve federal funding for these labs to protect America’s global competitiveness and national security.
Full text of the letter is available here and below:
Dear Secretary Wright and Director Vought:
We write to request that you reverse budgetary decisions that are actively harming our national laboratories and work with Congress to ensure that the labs have the full staffing and resources they need to conduct their critical work. National labs have already begun to initiate layoffs due to recent decisions by the administration. American technological, economic, and military superiority will be put at risk if our national labs are not operating at full strength.
The work performed by our national labs – research enterprises that are the envy of the world – fuel American innovation and dominance in cutting-edge technological fields. The national labs also undertake vital national security projects that support the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies that work to protect the safety and security of the American people. The work of the labs improves lives in so many facets of American society.
For example, the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory uses the world’s most powerful X-ray laser to enable scientists to uncover the 3-D molecular structure of proteins involved in the transmission of many diseases, such as African sleeping sickness, Dengue fever, and the Zika virus. It has also aided in the development of next-generation painkillers that seek to reduce side effects such as drug dependency. Lawrence Berkeley Lab developed the Interruption Cost Estimation (ICE) Calculator to provide economic cost estimates of power outages and grid improvements to help guide investments in grid reliability. Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos are working on the Source Physics Experiment to use seismic evidence to help detect when adversaries might try to surreptitiously develop nuclear weapons.
Moreover, AI and fusion energy are two key areas where America cannot afford to fall behind. Fortunately, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is already using AI to advance the U.S.’s national security. This includes supporting the safe stewardship of the nuclear stockpile, defending against cybersecurity attacks, and identifying biosecurity and chemical threats. And under the umbrella of its national security work for the National Nuclear Security Administration, Lawrence Livermore achieved fusion ignition at the lab’s National Ignition Facility in December 2022, demonstrating for the first time that humanity could produce more energy from fusion than the energy needed to drive the reaction. Further, at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, scientists are using AI to achieve discoveries in energy, chemistry, biology, and other areas that improve the daily lives of Americans.
Indeed, we believe the work of the national labs is instrumental in ensuring that the U.S. remains the global leader in the development of artificial intelligence models. Chinese companies like DeepSeek and Alibaba are racing to build large language models that seek to supplant American leadership in AI. As you know, experts in the public and private sectors alike and public officials on both sides of the aisle believe there is tremendous benefit in being the first nation to establish clear global AI dominance.
Secretary Wright, in recent testimony before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, you recognized this reality, stating, “I’m actually very open to expanding the lab budget back a little bit from where the current proposal is,” and you emphasized the work the labs are doing in fields such as artificial intelligence and fusion energy. We agree that the expertise and research efforts of our national labs are invaluable to advancing these critical endeavors, and we were pleased to hear that you also believe that the President’s budget request does not sufficiently account for the critical the work at our national labs.
Further, as senior appropriators have pointed out, OMB and DOE have reprogrammed hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding that was lawfully appropriated by Congress through enacted law. This redirection of funding for purposes not designated by Congress is not permitted by law, and it is already having real-world effects on our national labs and the dedicated Americans who work there. Due to unlawful reprogramming and the prospect of budget cuts as proposed by this administration’s budget request, labs have already started to lay off employees. National labs who have not yet begun layoffs have warned Congress that they may need to start laying off scientists in the near future.
For the sake of America’s global leadership, we cannot afford to let this happen. The 17 national labs managed by the Department of Energy are the crown jewels of the nation’s research and innovation ecosystem. We must ensure that they receive the recognition and resources they deserve. Thank you for working with us, and we welcome a conversation with you on this topic.
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