The tumultuous Iraq War Supplemental lumbers forward [1]. Despite the President’s threat to veto the bill if it contains domestic spending, about half the Senate Republicans voted to include domestic spending in the bill. Whew. This one gets thicker every day.
The AIP has highlighted the money proposed for NSF ($150 million) and DOE ($100 million) research. The specific language on the DOE follows [2]:
The Committee is aware that the final fiscal year 2008 appropriation was essentially flat with fiscal year 2007 in many areas of the Science budget. The result of flat funding shows up in reduced hours of operation of equipment and facilities, reduced service to users, staff layoffs, reductions to education and training programs, and other negative impacts. This increase to fiscal year 2008 funding will restore the jobs of 10 to 30 people who were terminated and prevent the reduction of 200 additional employees. Specifically, $55,000,000 is for Fusion Energy Sciences and $45,000,000 is for High Energy Physics.”
Here is the Chicago Tribune’s story on Fermilab and Argonne’s perspectives: [3].
[1] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080522/ap_on_go_co/congress_iraq_funding
[2] http://www.aip.org/fyi/2008/057.html
[3] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-labs-saved-bill_web_23may23,0,6020439.story
