Heinrich Secures Wins for N.M. Military Installations, National Labs in FY2025 National Defense Bill
Final bill passed by the Senate and heading to President Biden’s desk also includes historic pay raise for junior enlisted service members
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) welcomed Senate passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25). The legislation includes major wins that Heinrich secured, including investments in New Mexico’s service members, military installations, national labs, and job-creating initiatives throughout the state. The House of Representatives passed the FY25 NDAA last week. Now that the Senate has passed the bill, it heads to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
“This is an incredibly important piece of legislation for our active-duty service members and our national security,” said Heinrich. “It’s important for Congress to pass a bipartisan defense bill every year to ensure military readiness and strengthen the national security missions at our military installations and national labs in New Mexico. I’m also proud that we secured important forward-looking policies based on our work in the Bipartisan Senate AI Working Group to equip our military to maintain its competitive advantage over our adversaries in emerging technology fields like artificial intelligence, high performance computing, and advanced biotechnology. The investments we are delivering in this year’s defense bill will help our military make our country and the world safer.”
The NDAA sets the Department of Defense (DOD) spending levels and policies for the upcoming fiscal year and authorizes funding for the U.S. Department of Energy's programs at Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, as well as the Department of Energy's environmental cleanup programs including the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).
Senator Heinrich has long championed provisions that benefit New Mexico’s service members, national laboratories, and defense missions. Senator Heinrich served as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 2013 to 2020 and as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee from 2021 to 2022. He is also a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a member of the Senate Appropriations Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.
During his time in Congress, Heinrich has doubled the total budgets for Sandia and Los Alamos, significantly increasing the total employees and local economic impact of both labs. A detailed list of accomplishments that Heinrich has delivered for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) can be found here. A detailed list of accomplishments that Heinrich has delivered for Sandia National Laboratories can be found here. Heinrich has also delivered a total of more than $1.5 billion for military construction projects at defense installations in New Mexico over the course of his career in Congress.
Below is a list of many of the programs and provisions that Senator Heinrich advocated for during the bill writing process that were included in the FY25 NDAA bill.
Senate Defense Authorization Bill Highlights
Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies
Heinrich, a co-founder of the bipartisan Senate Artificial Intelligence (AI) Caucus, successfully supported the authorization of over $521 million for artificial intelligence and autonomy programs in the FY25 NDAA.
Heinrich, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) secured a new provision to invest in the Department of Defense’s infrastructure for advanced computing and artificial intelligence, building on the success of the existing High Performance Computing Modernization Program.
The FY25 NDAA also includes a provision that requires reporting to Congress on any Department of Defense approval of lethal autonomous weapons systems, mirroring an amendment that Heinrich proposed earlier this year. A separate provision builds on legislation that Heinrich secured in the FY20 NDAA to require the Department of Defense to have a plan for a strong digital engineering workforce, including the appointment of a Chief Digital Engineering Recruitment and Management Officer for the Department of Defense. The new provision reinforces the need for the Department of Defense to implement the original requirement with urgency, and to focus specifically on filling out the artificial intelligence workforce at the Department of Defense.
Many programs authorized by the FY25 NDAA reflect priorities that Heinrich included in the Bipartisan Senate AI Working Group’s policy roadmap earlier this year, including an investment in infrastructure to understand the implications that artificial intelligence has for advanced biotechnology.
Native American Lands Environmental Mitigation Program (NALEMP)
Heinrich successfully included provisions authorizing $5 million for the NALEMP program, extending cooperative agreements between Tribes and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from two to five years, and requiring the Department of Defense to better remediate unexploded ordnance on Tribal lands, which has been a longstanding issue for the Pueblo of Isleta.
The purpose of the NALEMP program is to address environmental impacts on Tribal lands from former Department of Defense activities with maximum tribal participation, through government-to-government consultation. Impacts that NALEMP helps address include: hazardous materials, munitions debris, unsafe buildings or structures, lead-based paint or asbestos, and abandoned equipment.
Historic Pay Raise for Junior Enlisted Service Members
A Heinrich-supported provision authorizes a 14.5 percent pay raise for the most junior-ranking enlisted service members, with the rest of the force receiving a 4.5 percent pay raise.
Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories
The FY25 NDAA authorizes $1.5 billion for LANL’s ongoing research and development programs. The funding supports personnel, equipment, and other activities at LANL. An additional $48 million is authorized to construct a plutonium mission safety and quality building.
Within the FY25 NDAA's overall $25 billion budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Sandia National Laboratories will receive funding to support and sustain system integration, engineering, and science programs. Sandia is also receiving $50 million in funding to complete a facilities upgrade of the Power Sources Technology Group, which provides comprehensive capabilities in power source research.
Additional Heinrich-led provisions:
- Direct the National Nuclear Security Administration to brief Congress on outstanding issues regarding the remediation and conveyance of land at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
- Direct the Administrator for Nuclear Security and Directors of Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia National Laboratories, along with leaders from other national labs, to evaluate site strategies that can aid the NNSA in making greater use of satellite facilities in areas neighboring existing laboratory and site installations.
In addition, a Heinrich-supported provision authorizes over $277 million for environmental cleanup efforts at Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories.
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)
The FY25 NDAA authorizes over $425 million to operate WIPP including $11 million to continue construction of additional ventilation and a new utility shaft.
Directed Energy
Heinrich successfully included language in the FY25 NDAA that will:
- Direct the Department of Defense and industry partners to conduct a study on the potential for the development and use of synthetic materials in directed energy weapons systems. This will help to alleviate foreign dependency on directed energy weapons materials.
- Direct the Department of Defense to assess the directed energy industrial base in order to mitigate supply chain failures.
- Require the Department of Defense to report to Congress a directed energy roadmap and associated funding requirements for each organization and element with the Department carrying out work related to directed energy capabilities. As the Department’s strategic goals are better articulated, industry and academia can make the investments necessary to secure directed energy supply chains for the future.
Space Force Modeling, Simulation & Analysis Hub
The FY25 NDAA authorizes $5 million for the ongoing establishment of a U.S. Space Force modeling and simulation hub at Kirtland Air Force Base.
Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program
The FY25 NDAA authorizes $188 million for the Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program. Cannon Air Force Base, Melrose Air Force Range, and White Sands Missile Range utilize the REPI to prevent encroachment and preserve their testing and training missions. The program as a whole is critical to assisting military installations and ranges as they are increasingly impacted by extreme weather, flooding, wildfires, drought, and other threats to resilience.
Strengthening Solid Rocket Motor Production
Heinrich secured report language directing the Department of Defense to create a strategy for ensuring the United States defense industrial base can meet solid rocket motor (SRM) requirements for current and future defense programs. Industry and universities, specifically New Mexico Tech, are leading the way in bringing us away from using Cold War era technologies, looking at advanced manufacturing of SRMs and scalable affordable processes and unique chemistries to bring the nation and New Mexico as a leader in innovative SRM production capabilities. SRMs are used in everything from commercial, civil and military space propulsion systems, to hypersonics, missiles, missile defense, and more.
Advanced Simulation and Computing for Nuclear Stockpile Stewardship
The FY25 NDAA authorizes over $879 million in funding for the NNSA’s advanced simulation and computing efforts in the Stockpile Stewardship Program. This program ensures continued reliability of the stockpile and allows realistic simulations on supercomputers to understand how they would behave, without requiring explosive testing.
Intelligence Authorization Act
The FY25 NDAA includes the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY25, legislation that equips U.S. intelligence agencies with the tools, resources, and personnel they need to protect the American people, while also ensuring congressional oversight over those same agencies.
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