Uh-oh.

[beamjockey]

Trib: Lab fiscal 'disaster' feared, U.S. cuts would hit Fermilab's research

Daily Herald: Federal budget so far not good for Fermilab

Kane County Chronicle: Fermi layoffs possible

Aurora Beacon News: Fermi faces funding crisis

Overview in Science: A Budget Too Small

Wired: US Budget Spells New Troubles For Next-Gen Particle Accelerator

Comments

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

It looks like hard science is getting hit (too).

Believe it or not, defense research at another national lab is also being hit. I think my sister will be safe from the layoffs announced at Sandia. But others are loosing their jobs, and not just through attrition. I wonder how the other national labs are impacted?

Every time someone in Washington thinks that they need to spend less money, they cut things that matter only to people who don't (or cannot) vote for them. I wonder if the loss of the long-time (and powerful) representative in Washington whose district, I believe, included Fermi, has anything to do with this.

[tandw.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how much Denny Hastert brought home for Fermi; I associated him more with Caterpillar and transportation research than anything else. Kind of like how Judy Biggert (her district includes Argonne Nat'l Lab, she's on the House Committee on Science and Technology, and Subcommittees on Energy and Environment & on Technology and Innovation) didn't seem to get us very much.

OTOH, Pete Domenici is a strong advocate for Sandia and Los Alamos, and Larry Craig does the same for Idaho Nat'l Lab, so it's not always that way.

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

But, alas, Domenici is also retiring at the end of his term. Of course, I suspect that the perspective replacements (Wilson, Peirce, Chavez or Udal most likely) may advocate for Sandia and Los Alamos as much as Domenici, but whoever ends up winning will be a first term senator and won't have as much influence as a long-time national player.

(For my notes on the New Mexico situation, you can see my journal entry.