Physics Today: Fermilab Director Pier Oddone informed the laboratory's staff Thursday the implications of the proposed FY08 federal budget on the facility. Congress changed Fermilab's proposed budget from $372 million to $320 million--a cut of $52 million. The budget cuts are because of $22 billion in savings Congress had to make in order for the President not to veto the budget.
All construction funding for two projects closely associated with Fermilab, the NOVA neutrino experiment and the fusion project ITER were removed from the federal budget. Funding for the International Linear Collider was reduced from $60 million to $15 million, most of which Fermilab had already spent as the US fiscal year began October 2007.
In response Oddone told staff to expect 200 job cuts, 10 percent of the workforce, and from February, staff will have to take two unpaid days off per month.
In a video released on the laboratory's web site Oddone said "I have not had to deal with a problem of this magnitude in my career," he said, "and Fermilab has not had to face a problem like this in its history."
Related links
Pier Oddone's Video statement to Fermilab
Fermilab Today's page on the budget cuts
Wow... that's a ridiculously large amount of cutbacks that FermiLab is going to have to make. FermiLab and other progressive science-minded institutions should get all the funding they need -- how can we expect to continually expand our knowledge of science if there isn't enough funding to do so?
Question: if we weren't spending so much of the country's money on the war overseas, would this situation even be happening?
WASHINGTON – Congressman Vernon J. Ehlers (R-MI) issued the following statement regarding federal funding for basic research and innovation passed by Congress this week in the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008:
“In a year full of rancor and limited cooperation, one issue rose above the others and found strong support from the President, Congress and American people: the critical role of innovation in U.S. global competitiveness. The broad support of that concept culminated in the historic passage of the America COMPETES Act, which was signed into law in August. The Act recognized the responsibility of the federal government to support basic scientific research and education conducted across the federal agencies, and the integral relationship between federal research and our nation’s economic competitiveness. It also directly responded to the recommendations of an esteemed National Academies report, which called for doubling the federal budget for long-term basic research in fewer than 10 years.
“Therefore, I am gravely disappointed with the funding levels provided for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Office of Science at the Department of Energy (DOE) in the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008. This bill fell dramatically short. Though modest increases were provided for NSF, NIST and the Office of Science, these increases essentially evaporate when Congressionally-directed funds, rescissions and inflation are considered. In light of the strong support requested by the President in his budget proposal, and the additional increases provided by both houses of Congress in their separate appropriations bills, the final numbers were an unanticipated blow. The original intent was to double the budgets of these agencies starting with the baseline of enacted funding from fiscal year 2006. Two years later, we are not even close to starting on that pathway. Furthermore, there is no way to sugarcoat the funding level for science and math education at the NSF, which has dropped to the lowest it has been since 2000 and a full twenty percent below the amount authorized in the COMPETES Act.
“The scientific agencies and community are scrambling to understand the impacts of the omnibus funding. It is already apparent that several Department of Energy projects and facilities may immediately have to be shut down. It may be years until the real impacts emerge as the repercussions of these funding decisions are felt in our international scientific stature as well as the career decisions of students considering teaching or other science-related fields. We are eating our technological “seed corn” and subsequently sacrificing the pipeline for future discovery and economic development. Despite the research community’s best efforts to explain to Members of Congress why these pressing problems can only be solved by consistent basic research, innovation remains a low priority for those who hold the purse strings.
“I realize that many, many programs did not receive the funding that was hoped for in this bill. Difficult decisions were necessary and ultimately some programs had to be reduced below House or Senate-passed levels more than others. Unfortunately, this year’s budget showed that fundamental science and innovation are not a high priority to the Congress. I will continue to work with my colleagues to change this position. The adopted budget is untenable for our nation, if we are to maintain any hope of providing world leadership in science and technology and remaining economically competitive.”
When is the scientific community going to wake up and realize that politicians are verbal creatures and not action figures. Words of support from people who specialize in the obtuse and obfuscation are meaningless. The scientific community is either going to develop it's own funding sources or fold the tent and move on.
This is typical of scientists. Thinking that what they do is the most important thing in the world. In actual fact it isn't. In the political world, there are many many more important priorities. For example getting elected and gathering as much power as possible. This is just an example of how that political process doesn't much value scientific jobs. You guys need to get real about the social value of what it is you do. There isn't really that much value at all in what you do. Get a reality check!!!
That's a pity that so many people will go home without payment. Now many of the govenment officials aye on mony. Very few of them notice the basic science. It's too bad for the science.
It's outlived it's usefulness. The HLC in Europe has made it obsolete. It leaks tritium into the water supply. It has not had any major discoveries. It's just not big enough for anything new. The $'s are better spent by being pumped into the economy to pull the U.S out of this major recession before it becomes a depression.
With all the U.S companies funding the overseas economies and sitting on billions , It is up to the U.S. Government to bail out the economy. U.S. businesses have failed miserably by outsourcing, layoffs, and destroying the economy.
Cut the unnecessary funding for these silly science projects that turn up "NOTHING!" of value. The ILC is a bigger loss for us at this time of dreadful unemployment and U.S economy problems. The economy and putting folks back to work needs to come first. Use the Millions for pumping into the economy so folks replaced by foreign outsourcing can keep their homes.