In its report on proposed funding for high energy physics, the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee targeted a removal of some of the LHC funding from the proposed budget. The exact language in the report was,
“The Committee questions the increased investment in Large Hadron Collider [LHC] support when the timing of the restart of the LHC is in doubt. The Committee urges the Office of Science and the LHC managers to improve communication on the status of the LHC.”
It was inevitable that this would happen, and while this is not the final funding level – the conference still has to happen after the senate vote – it should send a strong message. First, this is a message to Director General Hauer to increase communication about the accelerator, although to his credit he has already done so much better than his predecessor. Second, this is a warning to the US HEP community – half a billion already spent on LHC demands better communication to Congress than what they feel they are getting. It doesn’t matter how we think we’re doing; clearly, to be called out in senate report language means it is not enough.
