For immediate release: June 25, 2025

White House proposes 29% increase in nuclear warhead development and production, largest since 1962

No out-year cost estimates provided; warhead expenses rising exponentially
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) budget to increase by $866 million (18%) YoY to $5.799 billion; all the increase is in nuclear warhead work

Contact: Greg Mello: 505-577-8563 cell

This press release updates these prior press releases on the same topic:

White House proposes largest warhead spending increase since Reagan; Runaway U.S. warhead spending now vastly greater than in the Cold War, Jun 4, 2025
Trump administration seeks huge increase in nuclear warhead spending, the largest since 1962; Meanwhile NNSA sits on a large pile of unspent funds, May 2, 2025

Permalink * Prior press releases in general

Albuquerque, NM -- The Department of Energy (DOE) has released most of its proposed fiscal year 2026 (FY2026) congressional budget request, including its funding request for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its summary tables for funding at each DOE laboratory and in each state.

In this budget, NNSA "Weapons Activities" spending for FY2026 would increase by $5.907 billion (B), or 29%, over this year's enacted level. This is the largest percentage increase, and the largest constant-dollar increase, in spending on nuclear warhead development, testing, and production since 1962, the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

At LANL, a huge increase, greater concentration on weapons; no great change at SNL from NNSA

At LANL, DOE spending would rise from $4.933 B to $5.799 B year-on-year (YoY), i.e. $866 million, an 18% increase. Of this new level, $5.058 B (87%) is NNSA Weapons Activities, up from 83% in the current year.

LANL's total budget is somewhat greater than this as LANL also receives funding from other federal agencies, principally the Department of Defense (DoD). These "Strategic Partnership Programs" (SPPs) have typically brought in an additional $300-$400 million each year.

If this budget becomes law, LANL will be a $6 billion/year nuclear weapons laboratory.

DOE's budget for Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) would remain more or less constant in this proposal ($3.462 B in FY2026 vs $3.502 in FY2026). SNL's budget is actually much greater than this due to SPPs, the proposed amount of which is unknown to us.

The big increase is in the reconciliation bill

Of the total proposed for NNSA ($30.042 B), most of the increase -- $4.782 billion (B) in budget authority for FY2026 and $1.218 B for the following four out-years -- is to come from the proposed budget reconciliation bill.

No out-year spending plan is provided, contrary to law

This year's NNSA budget request has some details not usually provided, some of which will be covered in future press releases.

But crucially for Congress, budget planners, and the policy community this budget request does not include an outline of its proposed out-year spending for FY2027, FY2028, FY2029, and FY2030. Proposed expenses in these out-years are essential components in the five-year "Future Years National Security Program" (FYNSP) required by statute (NNSA Act, section 3253, p. 35).

This budget does not include everything

As noted on p. 2 of the laboratory tables, "the numbers depicted in this document represent the gross level of DOE budget authority for the years displayed. The figures include discretionary and supplemental funding. They do not consider revenues/receipts, use of prior year balances, deferrals, rescissions, or other adjustments appropriated as offsets to the DOE appropriations by the Congress."

As mentioned on our June 4 press release, in December 2024 there was a large emergency appropriation for Weapons Activities ($1.884 B). In the FY2026 budget request, this would be a "prior year balance" and is not mentioned further.

Comments

Study Group director Greg Mello:

"NNSA is making too many warheads and bombs. Congress especially is eager to spend borrowed taxpayer funds on nuclear weapons projects in its respective states and districts. And of course the appetites of the contractors, which can and do provide campaign contributions, are unbounded.

"The result is an agency with an unnecessarily vast workload and a correspondingly bottomless need for money. NNSA is almost completely privatized -- more than 95% -- so this is a profound structural problem.

"NNSA's warhead budget is rising exponentially. This proposed huge year-on-year increase won't be the last. But sooner or later NNSA's spending spree will end. Some of its projects will be abandoned.

"For example, the nation will not be able to support two factories for plutonium warhead cores ("pits"). Pit operations at LANL, the site with the highest operational costs, which is too small to support the arsenal, with facilities too old to last, will be curtailed.

"This gigantic increase in warhead spending will be decided by an up-or-down vote in the reconciliation bill. It is a terrible procedure. We would rather see the whole government shut down and the members of Congress face the wrath of their constituents than to use the present reconciliation process.

"This increase is so huge that NNSA won't be able to spend it all. Some of it will go into NNSA's big piggy bank of funds 'available until expended,' as NNSA appropriations bills usually say. We believe that is where much of last year's emergency appropriation now resides, along with billions more."

The proposed NNSA spending level for FY2026 can be seen in historical context in the graph below (bigger). NNSA planning and budgeting documents over recent years are here. We have not yet prepared a graph of historical and proposed LANL spending that incorporates this new information.

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