Heinrich Secures Wins for N.M. Service Members, Military Installations, & National Labs in FY2026 National Defense Bill

NDAA includes Heinrich's bills to reimburse service members and their families for medical travel and to honor New Mexico Downwinders

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) welcomed final passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26). The legislation includes major wins that Heinrich secured, including investments in New Mexico's service members, military installations, national labs, job-creating initiatives throughout the state, and two specific Heinrich-led bills.

"This bipartisan defense bill includes important provisions to support our service members, invest in New Mexico's military installations, strengthen our national labs, and accelerate critical environmental clean-up work in New Mexico. It also includes my legislation to ensure military families stationed at White Sands Missile Range, Holloman Air Force Base, and rural bases across the U.S. are reimbursed for medical travel under TRICARE Prime," said Heinrich. "I'm proud that this legislation also further cements New Mexico's leadership on emerging defense and space capabilities, includes my Downwinder Commemoration Act and International Nuclear Energy Act, and builds on important cybersecurity provisions that grew out of my work in the Bipartisan Senate AI Working Group. This bill will help make New Mexico and our country stronger and safer."

Heinrich successfully included within the FY26 NDAA his TRICARE Travel Improvement Act to ensure active-duty service members and their families can be reimbursed when they travel for medical care. Currently, families stationed at White Sands Missile Range and Holloman Air Force Base travel nearly 100 miles to El Paso, Texas, for specialist medical care, but are denied reimbursement because they are just under the 100-mile threshold. Heinrich's TRICARE Travel Improvement Act will ensure fairness for military families serving in remote areas by lowering the travel reimbursement threshold under TRICARE Prime from 100 miles to 75 miles for military families.

Heinrich also successfully included in the FY26 NDAA his Downwinder Commemoration Act to recognize the harm endured by New Mexico's Downwinders following the 1945 Trinity Test - the first nuclear detonation in U.S. history. The bill directs the Department of Defense (DoD) to place commemorative monuments in publicly accessible areas at White Sands Missile Range and Holloman Air Force Base in their honor.

Both the TRICARE Travel Improvement Act and the Downwinder Commemoration Act are led by Heinrich in the Senate and U.S. Representative Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) in the House.

"As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I'm fighting for New Mexico's interests and fair share of funding in the nation's defense bill," said Vasquez. "With the passage of these two bipartisan bills I have led, we will finally recognize the families who have suffered in silence from the impacts of the Trinity Test and also ensure military families at White Sands and Holloman Air Force Base don't have to pay out of pocket to access health care."

Additionally, Heinrich successfully included the FY26 NDAA his International Nuclear Energy Act, co-led with U.S. Senators James Risch (R-Idaho), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah), to provide the federal government new tools to coordinate on nuclear energy policy with allied nations and help American energy companies thrive on the world market.

The FY26 NDAA now heads to the White House.

The NDAA sets the 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).

Heinrich has long championed provisions that benefit New Mexico's service members, national laboratories, and defense missions. Heinrich served as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 2013 to 2020 and as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee from 2021 to 2022. He is also a member of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a member of the U.S. 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.

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.

FY26 Defense Authorization Bill Highlights

Military Construction

Heinrich championed a historic number of investments in our military installations in New Mexico, including:

• $90 million for a new 192-bed dormitory at Cannon Air Force Base.

• $79 million for a Deployment Processing Center at Cannon Air Force Base.

• $83 million for a Space Rapid Capabilities Office Headquarters at Kirtland Air Force Base.

• $10 million for a dormitory for the 58^th Special Operations Wing on Kirtland Air Force Base.

• $26 million for an Explosive Operations Building on Kirtland Air Force Base.

• $38.5 million for a Power Generation and Microgrid project on White Sands Missile Range.

• $4.25 million for a Soldier Performance Readiness Center for the New Mexico Army National Guard at the Sante Fe Training Center.

Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies

Heinrich helped secure provisions that ensure the DoD only uses commercial AI services from companies with a reliable cybersecurity posture. AI companies that do not take appropriate steps to defend themselves in cyberspace may become the victims of supply chain attacks that compromise the trustworthiness of their products.

Pay Raise for Junior Enlisted Service Members

The FY26 NDAA authorizes a 3.8 percent pay raise for service members. This builds off of a 14.5 percent pay raise for the most junior-ranking enlisted service members, and a 4.5 percent pay raise for the rest of the force in the FY25 NDAA.

Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories

The FY26 NDAA authorizes $1.79 billion for LANL's ongoing research and development programs. The funding supports personnel, equipment, and other activities at LANL.

Within the FY26 NDAA's overall $26 billion 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 $40 million for their Microsystems, Engineering, Science and Applications (MESA) Photolithography Capability and $52.2 million for Combined Radiation Environments for Survivability Testing.

Additional Heinrich-led provisions include:

• Directing the U.S. Department of Energy Secretary to brief Congress on recommended actions to accelerate environmental cleanup milestones with the State of New Mexico at Los Alamos National Laboratory, including interim measures to control migration of a hexavalent chromium plume and progress on the groundwater remedies for the Royal Demolition Explosive (RDX) plume in Cañon de Valle.

• Directing the NNSA Administrator for Nuclear Security and Directors of Los Alamos 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 facilities in areas neighboring existing laboratory and site installations, particularly where workforce housing is less constrained.

• Directing the U.S. Comptroller General to assess:
  • What Unexploded Ordnance remediation efforts the NNSA has completed in the vicinity of Sandia National Laboratories; and
  • The extent to which additional efforts are needed to ensure that all affected nearby communities have been cleared of legacy unexploded ordnance.

• Authorizing nearly $300 million for environmental cleanup efforts at Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories.

• Directing the NNSA Administrator for Nuclear Security to conduct a study of portions of Tract A-14 (Rendija Canyon) of Los Alamos National Laboratory that may be suitable for conveyance.

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

The FY26 NDAA authorizes over $415 million to operate WIPP including $2 million to construct a hoisting capability project to improve facility capacity and effectiveness.

Space Force Modeling, Simulation & Analysis Hub

The FY26 NDAA authorizes $7.5 million for the ongoing establishment and deployment of a U.S. Space Force modeling and simulation hub at the Air Force Research Lab on Kirtland Air Force Base.

Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program

The FY26 NDAA authorizes over $182 million for the DoD'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.

Advanced Simulation and Computing for Nuclear Stockpile Stewardship

The FY26 NDAA authorizes $866 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 FY26 NDAA includes the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY26, 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.

###

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Tweet