Laura McGill, director of Sandia National Laboratories, said Monday that she anticipates “no further job losses” due to Sandia’s headcount already being pared by about 400 this fiscal year, according to local publication Source NM.
McGill, who took over as director in May, discussed layoffs with New Mexico lawmakers at the Science Technology and Telecommunications Committee meeting in Albuquerque, N.M. She confirmed there that 2% of employees took a voluntary severance package, and that most of the job losses were in “support positions,” meaning non-contract work for government positions in the DoD or the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
The article said around 75% of eliminated positions came from the Albuquerque location, while the remaining layoffs came from the Livermore, Calif. location of the lab.
In response to a question on any directives from the Donald Trump administration to cut positions related to “diversity, equity and inclusion,” McGill said “it hasn’t affected anything we’re doing internally.”
“We continue to support all our employees,” McGill added. “We just believe in belonging.”
Another question was on administration’s cuts to science grants and medical research, and how any cuts affected the lab. McGill said she expects either static funding or increases to nuclear weapons work, and that the reconciliation bill’s $6 billion increase to NNSA funding that go to designing, handling and storing nuclear weapons would account for over 60% of Sandia’s work.
“As far as the federal budgets go, we’re in great shape,” McGill said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said at a Energy and Natural Resources committee hearing in June with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright that the White House fiscal 2026 budget had a proposed 11% cut to national lab funding. Wright said proposed cuts would be “on a lab by lab basis,” and that he is “very open” to restoring some of the funding.
