The New Mexico Department of Human Services received the lion’s share of federal money—$2.9 billion. Lockheed Martin Corporation, which operates Sandia National Labs, and Los Alamos National Security LLC came in a close second and third, receiving $2.4 billion and $2.3 billion, respectively. The state Department of Health and Social Services and Transportation Department received $765 million and $505 million, respectively, federal databases show.

More than $27 billion was spent in New Mexico, according to data in the Census Bureau’s current Consolidated Federal Funds Report. Federal spending databases detail only $22.7 billion of that money, due to reporting lags by federal agencies.

The bulk of New Mexico’s share of federal money, $5.5 billion, came from the U.S. Energy Department. Federal Medicaid and Medicare represented another $5.4 billion, while Social Security spending totaled $4.5 billion for 2009.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., is chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which oversees the Energy Department’s national laboratories.

Federal spending in the state climbed 15 percent between 2008 and 2009, due largely to federal economic stimulus grants.

Former Sandia Laboratory Director Tom Hunter was part of a team put together by President Barack Obama to study ways to stop the oil spill. And the labs have been involved in the latest effort to contain the oil, the so-called “top kill” method.

Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement, “After spending time in the Gulf, it’s clear to me that there is an aggressive effort underway to solve this problem.”

The oil spill has been gushing oil for weeks — the latest predictions of up to four million gallons a day.

“I have hopes that the attempt later this week to stop the leak will be successful,” Bingaman said. “I am also glad to know that both Sandia and Los Alamos has some of their best and brightest people working with BP and the federal government.”

Bingaman is holding hearings on the oil spill today in Washington D.C.

According to the Consolidated Federal Funds Report for fiscal year 2008, New Mexico ranked 5th out of all the states in the amount of federal dollars it receives per capita. Put another way, New Mexico received more than $12,000 for each resident, or nearly $24 billion in fiscal  year 2008, the report reveals.

That rate puts the Land of Enchantment just below Kentucky (4th), but behind Alaska (3rd), Maryland (2nd) and Virginia (1st). Virginia, by way of comparison, receives more than $15,000 in federal dollars per each resident.

This likely does not come as a surprise to many native New Mexicans, who know from years of experience the big footprint the federal government leaves here. But because I’m a government report geek and I can’t help trying to evangelize others to my love of data-rich reports, I thought I’d share this information in hopes others would romp joyfully in the lakes of data a report like this one offers.

The Consolidated Federal Funds Report uses an expansive definition of federal dollars, considering several categories, to come up with its computations. Those categories are: retirement and disability payments; other direct payments; grants; procurement contracts; salaries and wages; direct loans; guaranteed or insured loans; and insurance.

It goes without saying that New Mexico benefits hugely from the two national labs — Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory — not to mention a couple of U.S. Air Force bases, when all the categories are considered. New Mexico registered $6.9 billion in procurement contracts during the federal government’s 2008 budget year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

The next largest category in federal dollars for New Mexico was $5.9 billiion, in retirement and disability checks, the report shows.

Of course New Mexico, because of its small population, is dwafed in the amount of real dollars it receives by big population states. For example,California receives nearly $300 billion, Texas $210 billion, New York $174 billion, according to the report.

For some additional reading, the Christian Science Monitor attempts to make sense of some aspects of the report.

That was the sound that accompanied the collective slap against the forehead from the nation’s national security community when news came out Tuesday that a 266-page report laying out details of the nation’s network of nuclear sites and programs was accidentally released publicly.

The report included particulars about its weapons labs, two of which are in New Mexico: Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The story laying out what happened was posted on the New York Times website Tuesday night.

Here’s an excerpt:

The report details the locations of hundreds of nuclear sites and activities. Each page is marked across the top “Highly Confidential Safeguards Sensitive” in capital letters, with the exception of pages that detailed additional information like site maps. In his transmittal letter, Mr. Obama said the cautionary language was a classification category of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors.

While the author of the Times story writes that information about Los Alamos and Sandia was released in the 266-page report, he doesn’t go into detail but rather says the most serious breach involved the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

The report lists many particulars about nuclear programs and facilities at the nation’s three nuclear weapons laboratories — Los Alamos, Livermore and Sandia — as well as dozens of other federal and private nuclear sites.

One of the most serious disclosures appears to center on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, which houses the Y-12 National Security Complex, a sprawling site ringed by barbed wire and armed guards. It calls itself the nation’s Fort Knox for highly enriched uranium, a main fuel of nuclear arms.

The Times quotes several experts who debate the seriousness of the breach. Some say it’s devastating. Others says the report lays out what’s pretty much already known publicly.

The Times explains that the information is “considered confidential but not classified” and was assembled for transmission later this year to the International Atomic Energy Agency (AEA).

The report to the AEA is “part of a process by which the United States is opening itself up to stricter inspections in hopes that foreign countries, especially Iran and others believed to be clandestinely developing nuclear arms, will do likewise,” the Times reports.

“President Obama sent the document to Congress on May 5 for Congressional review and possible revision, and the Government Printing Office subsequently posted the draft declaration on its Web site.”

Criticism mounted Wednesday against the plan as New Mexico’s congressional delegation vowed to fight such a measure, reports ihe Albuquerque Journal.

In case you don’t subscribe and can’t see the story through the link, here’s an excerpt.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., went even further, saying he would urge the energy secretary to begin consideration of eliminating the National Nuclear Security Administration and putting the program back under the Department of Energy.

The NNSA, created as a quasi-independent agency eight years ago to manage nuclear weapons design and manufacture, has been a failure, Bingaman told the Journal on Wednesday.

But the solution is not to move nuclear weapons work into the Pentagon, as the Obama administration is considering, Bingaman said. Such a move would hamper the labs’ ability to do nonmilitary research, Bingaman contends.

Also, more layoffs are coming at the High Energy Laser System Test Facility on the White Sands Missile Range, reports the Las Cruces Sun News.

In other stories, an attorney for former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici tells the Albuquerque Journal that his client is not involved in the Department of Justice investigation into the U.S. Attorney investigations.

Here’s an excerpt:

Former Sen. Pete Domenici’s lawyer disputed a report Wednesday on a prominent political Web site that said Domenici is the focus of a grand jury investigation related to the firing of former U.S. attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias.

Talking Points Memo, which won a top national journalism award for its reporting on the U.S. attorneys controversy that led to the resignation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales last year, reported that a federal grand jury “is focusing on the role played by recently retired Sen. Pete Domenici and former senior White House aides” in the firing of Iglesias.

“The federal grand jury is investigating whether Domenici and other political figures attempted to improperly press Iglesias to bring a criminal prosecution against New Mexico Democrats just prior to the 2006 congressional midterm elections,” the Web site said. It attributed the report to “legal sources close to the investigation and private attorneys representing officials who prosecutors want to question.”

Domenici told the Journal late Wednesday that he was not aware of any grand jury inquiry.

“I don’t believe that’s right,” said Domenici, the former U.S. senator from New Mexico who retired last month after 36 years in office.

Domenici’s attorney in Washington, Lee Blalack, told the Journal the “implication” in the Talking Points Memo story was “false.”

In Albuquerque, a Sandia National Laboratories solar energy researcher is a finalist in Discover Magazine’s “The Future of Energy in 2 Minutes or Less” contest.

And down south it appears that Hal Mumme is out as football coach after four years at New Mexico State University.