Testimony of Members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation
U.S. Representative Judy Biggert
U.S. Representative Peter J. Roskam
U.S. Representative Jerry F. Costello
U.S. Representative Bobby L. Rush
U.S. Representative Jerry Weller
U.S. Representative Daniel Lipinski
U.S. Representative Melissa Bean
U.S. Representative Ray LaHood
U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel
Before the House Committee on the Budget
Regarding the Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 2009,
Function 250 – General Science, Space, and Technology, and
Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
February 28, 2008
Mr. Chairman, we want to thank you for this opportunity to share our views on and priorities for Function 250 – General Science, Space and Technology – in the fiscal year (FY) 2009 federal budget. Function 250 includes the budget for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, which is the principal source of funding for Argonne National Laboratory, and the sole source of funding for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
Both national laboratories are located in Illinois, are critical to American competitiveness, and were adversely impacted by severe underfunding of the DOE Office of Science in the FY2008 omnibus appropriations bill. Overall, the $4.0 billion budget for the DOE Office of Science – excluding $125 million in earmarked funds in the fiscal year 2008 omnibus – increased at a rate less than inflation. Funding for a number of programs, facilities, and projects, including High Energy Physics, Basic Energy Science user facilities, and the U.S. contribution to the international fusion experiment ITER, declined significantly or were cut altogether.
As a result of these cuts, Fermilab has been forced to furlough all employees, and may be forced to lay off a total of 200 scientists, engineers, and their support staff if Congress and the Department of Energy fail to provide additional funds for the High Energy Physics program in FY2008. In addition to shutting down two years early a user facility slated for closure and laying off around 30 people as a result, Argonne has been forced to reduce by 20 to 25 percent the operation of its Advanced Photon Source – the most powerful X-ray research facility in the Western Hemisphere – impacting hundreds of America’s academic, government, and industry scientists who depend on this unique tool.
President Bush’s FY2009 budget proposal includes $4.7 billion for the DOE Office of Science and the physical sciences research it supports. While the President’s budget proposal is not intended to address the problems that resulted from the FY2008 omnibus bill, it would more than restore funding for the critical research and facilities at Argonne and Fermilab and throughout the DOE complex. That’s why we strongly urge the Budget Committee to provide the necessary resources in Function 250 to enable Congress to appropriate at least $4.7 billion for the DOE Office of Science.
Budgeting $4.7 billion for the DOE Office of Science is consistent with the priorities of the Democrats’ Innovation Agenda and the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative, both of which propose to double federal funding for basic research in the physical sciences over the next five to ten years. Because the DOE Office of Science supports over 40 percent of total federal funding for basic physical sciences research – more than any other federal agency – increasing its funding is critical if we are to achieve our shared, bipartisan goal.
But more than a bipartisan priority, increasing funding for the DOE Office of Science must be a national priority. We face a world in which our economic competitors in Asia and Europe are making significant new investments in their own research capabilities. These investments are beginning to pay off, as Asian and European countries challenge U.S. leadership in the sciences no matter how it is measured – by number of patents won, articles submitted to scientific journals, degrees awarded, Nobel prizes won, or the percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) dedicated to research and development.
Report after report – from the National Academy of Sciences and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology to the Task Force on American Innovation and the Council on Competitiveness – calls on Congress and the President to invest in U.S. research capabilities. The benefits of such an investment to the U.S. economy and U.S. competitiveness are well known. Economic experts have concluded that science-driven technology has accounted for more than 50 percent of the growth of the U.S. economy during the last half-century.
Even as we face greater international competition, these are exciting times for science in the United States. The Office of Science has developed a balanced investment strategy to ensure the U.S. retains its dominance in such key scientific fields as biotechnology, nanotechnology, material and chemical sciences, and supercomputing well into the next century. Leadership in these areas will benefit our health, our environment, our energy security, our economy, and our national security.
U.S. scientists are as bright as any in the world, but they traditionally have had better tools than everyone else. The DOE Office of Science has led the way in creating a unique system of large-scale, specialized user facilities for scientific discovery. Under the President’s budget, 21,500 researchers would have access to these DOE facilities. Nearly half of those users will be university faculty and students, a significant number will be from U.S. industry, and many will be from other federal agencies. This collection of cutting-edge – often one-of-a-kind – tools makes the DOE Office of Science a unique and critical component of the federal science portfolio. Other federal science agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), greatly depend upon these DOE Office of Science facilities in carrying out their own research activities.
Because of the importance of the DOE Office of Science to the nation’s research efforts and its long-term competitiveness, not to mention laboratories like Argonne and Fermilab, we urge the committee to provide the necessary resources in Function 250 to enable Congress to appropriate at least $4.7 billion for the DOE Office of Science. With this funding, the DOE Office of Science will attract the best minds, educate the next generation of scientists and engineers, support the construction and operation of modern facilities, and conduct even more of the quality scientific research that will ensure the U.S. retains its competitive edge for many years to come. |