Proposed US Budget A Major Blow to High Energy Physics

[mheslep]

While the budget cuts and debacle are going on both in the US and UK, the http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/32378" .

I don't see any budget numbers in the piece so I'm unable to get any sense of scale of the Japanese program, only that its growing. I'm curious about the relative size of the Japan / US programs given the US cuts.

 

[rewebster]

They need to have a bake sale to raise some cash---or maybe bingo

 

[ZapperZ]

Care to reference that? (Not challenging, just interested). It seems that the the cuts themselves are only part of the problem; the fact that they came unexpectedly at the last minute compounds it.

Actually, it is worse than that. The fiscal year starts in Sept. So in Sept. 2007, the Fiscal Year 2008 started. Since there were no budget, congress passed a continuing resolution, which meant that we went on the FY2007 budget. So when we got the bad news late December 2007, we had already spent some of the money based on a projection of what we were getting in FY07. So the unfortunate result here is that those programs in which they either had severe cutbacks, or got NO money whatsoever (NOvA and ITER), were already in the RED, because they had already spent money that they ended up not getting at all.

The situation right now is significantly worse than what many people imagine, or are aware of. I've never seen it this bad before. Unfortunately, I don't think the general public is aware of how bad it is, or maybe they do, don't see why they should care.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

If you are a US citizen and concern about the recent budget cutbacks in science, please help!

From: Arthur Bienenstock, President, the American Physical Society
To: Members of the American Physical Society
Re: Federal Funding Alert: http://www.aps.org/policy/tools/alerts


I am writing to request that you contact your elected representatives and let them know that the 2008 federal budget deals a devastating blow to basic research. You can make this contact quickly and easily at:
http://www.aps.org/policy/tools/alerts

There, you will find pre-written messages to your Senators, Representatives and President Bush. You may send these letters as they are, modify them, or write your own. While individualizing your letter is not essential, please at least make minor edits to the subject line and the first line of the text of each email so that these emails are more individualized. (See webpage pointers below for further instruction.)

Congress wrapped up the Fiscal Year 2008 (FY08) budget just before adjourning for the year. The budget, which wipes out $1 billion in increases approved last summer for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE Science) and the NIST laboratories, does irreparable damage to science and abandons the Innovation/Competitiveness initiatives of Congress and the Administration.

While DOE Science programs received a 2.5 percent increase overall (exclusive of earmarks), they will decline by about one percent after inflation. High-energy physics and fusion will feel the greatest pain. High energy physics will likely have to eliminate hundreds of jobs, halt work on both the NOvA, the next step in neutrino physics at FermiLab and partially furlough many remaining employees. The Omnibus bill for FY08 also stopped R&D on the International Linear Collider project, an international high-precision step beyond the Large Hadron Collider, and zeroed out the U.S. contribution to the international ITER project, designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. These actions are severely damaging to the U.S. standing in the international scientific community.

The NSF, with only a 1.2 percent increase for Research and Related Activities, will lose almost three percent in level of effort after inflation is taken into account. Moreover, with new facility projects coming online, their administrative costs will have to be paid out of the research accounts. As a result, university proposal funding rates will inevitably fall.

The request in the attached letters is to restore that funding in an FY08 supplemental appropriations bill, and to support the FY09 budget at the levels authorized in the COMPETES act, efforts that the APS Washington Office are pursuing with both Congress and the Administration.


WEBPAGE POINTERS:
(1) While individualizing your letter is not essential, we ask that you make minor edits to the subject line and the first line of the text of each email.
(2) If you are a government employee, please do not use government resources to send a communication.
(3) Your browser will take you to a page where you will enter your name and address.
(4) After entering your address, click the “Edit/Send Email button.” A window with an individual email message to the four offices will appear. Click “Send Emails” to transmit the communication.
(5) Electronic submission is preferred.

If you did write, I'd appreciate it if you can let me know either in this thread or via PM. Please note that the last time we had a similar campaign, our voices were heard and FY2007 restored some of the money intended for science. This time, the need is even more crucial because severe cuts are already in place that jeopardizes a lot of programs. So do not discount the effectiveness of your letter.

Since this was intended for APS members, the letter should be modified accordingly to reflect who you are. Again, individualize it to your case.

Thank you for your support.

Zz.

 

[Gokul43201]

Not a citizen, but who's to tell. So I wrote, nevertheless, to Senators Brown and Voinovich, Congresswoman Pryce & the President. My letter was a lot stronger than APS's.

 

[ZapperZ]

Good for you.

I should to mention that the APS letter doesn't require that one is a citizen. However, if you are AND a registered voter, that should be something you might want to consider mentioning.

Zz.

 

[Mororvia]

I got that email and sent out some letters. I didn't edit it too much since its pretty well written as it is :) I'm also going to post it on a forum or two where people may be interested

 

[ZapperZ]

Our friends across the pond isn't doing too well either with the recent budget cuts for UK's basic research. In fact, in some ways, they have it even worse because of a complete pull-out of the ILC and the Gemini project.

Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ma...ml=/earth/2008/01/15/scilights115.xml&page=1" on this issue. Many of his points are directly applicable to the US science budget cuts. I like what Brian Foster of Oxford has been quoted of saying. It is "scientific vandalism".

Zz.

 

[wolram]

Care to reference that? (Not challenging, just interested). It seems that the the cuts themselves are only part of the problem; the fact that they came unexpectedly at the last minute compounds it.

Where did people think money was going to be cut from to pay for serval conflicts going on in the world, in the UK taxes are all ready at straining point wages are not keeping up with inflation, governments are desperate to find ways of saving money that do not reflect (directly on the GP). the thread is in GD some where. i think Astro may remember it as he made a reply.

 

[ZapperZ]

Raymond Orbach, the undersecretary for science at the U.S. Department of Energy , sat down with Science's Adrian Cho and Eli Kintisch http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/115/1".

Too bad someone in his position cannot diss those people who passed the budget. Still, I am not as optimistic as he is, considering that FY09 might still have the same political baggage as this year.

Zz.

 

[fourier jr]

more from Nature:

Published online 16 January 2008 | Nature 451, 235 (2008) | doi:10.1038/451235d
News in Brief

Budget cuts force early closure of Stanford collider

In early March, California's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) will shut down a collider that produces B mesons. The closure means that the lab's commitment to BaBar — an international collaboration studying the differences between matter and antimatter — will now end seven months early.

The announcement was made on 7 January by SLAC director Persis Drell after the US Department of Energy gave her its plan to deal with deep budget cuts to high-energy physics. Faced with a choice between keeping SLAC's 'B-factory' open and continuing to run the Tevatron, the high-energy collider at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, the department chose the Tevatron, which might detect the Higgs boson before the Large Hadron Collider is turned on at CERN, Europe's particle-physics lab based near Geneva, later this year.

SLAC also plans to lay off 125 of its 1,600 employees in April, on top of an ongoing 100-person reduction.

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080116/full/451235d.html

 

[fourier jr]

looks like UK physics is in trouble also:
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080116/full/news.2008.446.html

 

[Gokul43201]

It doesn't look to me (judging based on a response from Senator Brown) like there is going to be any emergency appropriations to fix FY08 - Congress just doesn't have the steam for that. The best we can realistically hope for is a decent compensation in FY09.

 

[ZapperZ]

It doesn't look to me (judging based on a response from Senator Brown) like there is going to be any emergency appropriations to fix FY08 - Congress just doesn't have the steam for that. The best we can realistically hope for is a decent compensation in FY09.

Most of us are not expecting anything much to come out of the FY08 supplemental bill (which is why some of us are already starting with furlough and even voluntary/involuntary layoff option) just to survive till Oct. 1st. Unfortunately, and this is just my gut instinct, I don't see any relief or good news to come out of FY09 considering the political climate.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

The Chicago Tribune has a lengthy article on why the budget battle between the US Congress and President Bush http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sun_argonne_0120jan20,0,1456861.story?track=rss" .

Zz.

 

[Gokul43201]

Zz, how badly does this affect programs outside HEP? For instance, does Argonne MSD face any cuts? Will this affect their recruiting/post doc offers in this coming year?

 

[ZapperZ]

Zz, how badly does this affect programs outside HEP? For instance, does Argonne MSD face any cuts? Will this affect their recruiting/post doc offers in this coming year?

DOE has directed all, and I mean all, programs at their National Labs to cut operations/budget by 1% across the board. So it isn't just HEP and Nuclear Physics that are being affected here.

I don't know about recruitment. All I know is that we are facing voluntary and involuntary layoffs, furloughs, and other issues. Current postdocs within our division are being protected and will not experience any effects on the budget cutbacks, other than what is being affected to their projects. So based on that, I'm guessing that we are having a hiring freeze for staff, but I don't know about postdocs.

A bunch of us were chatting, and we just realized that some of us will still be coming to work even when we are under a furlough. Isn't that sad? There are some extremely dedicated people working who would show up to work not only when they're on vacation, but even on days when they aren't getting paid! There are simply prior commitments to fulfill, and things that just needed to get done. For many of them, they work with an international collaboration and simply refuse to ruin their reputation of not being able to deliver or complete the tasks they've been given.

It is too bad that many of our politicians simply do not have such integrity.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Update: impacts of FY08 budget on Science

Here another broadcast e-mail from the APS:

From: Arthur Bienenstock, President, the American Physical Society
To: Members of the American Physical Society
Re: Update: Impact of FY08 Federal Budget on Science:
http://www.aps.org/policy/tools/alerts

Thank you to the 3000 of you who answered my request last week to write to Congress. I am writing to update you on further impacts of the FY08 Budget on science and to urge more of you to write to your representative, senators, and the president.

While the FY08 budget impacts federal science funding agencies and the various disciplines of physics and science differently, it is important for us to work together as a community to remedy the situation. I urge you to be part of a coherent voice addressing lawmakers.

The Department of Energy Office of Science released a document last week listing the impacts to all of its programs. In addition to the damage to the Fusion and High Energy Physics programs that I emphasized last week, there are major impacts in Basic Energy Sciences (BES) and Nuclear Physics programs. The Intense Pulsed Neutron Source at Argonne National Laboratory is being closed permanently and various construction projects will be delayed by as much as a year. Operations at the light sources will also likely be reduced by as much as 10%, and nearly 700 proposals responding to a BES solicitation for energy research have been declined.

In the Nuclear Physics program, operations at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (BNL) will be reduced from 30 weeks to 13 and at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory) from 34 weeks to 24 weeks. Operations at the Argonne Tandem Linear Accelerator and the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility are also reduced and construction projects at these facilities and others are also delayed. For the complete listing of impacts at the Office of Science and further details, please see
http://www.aps.org/policy/issues/research-funding/upload/SC08Omnibus.pdf.

The National Science Foundation has yet to release an impact statement. However, as I reported in my previous message, proposal funding rates are likely to go down. The research and related activities account was increased by less than the rate of inflation and increases in facility operation costs are likely to further constrain the award funding.

The impact statement from the National Institute of Standards and Technology reports major setbacks to their FY08 agenda with the NIST laboratories having received only a small fraction of their previously approved increase. As a result, they will not be able to fund initiatives on quantum science, climate change, cybersecurity, nanotechnology and many other programs.

Taken as a whole, the FY08 budget is a major blow to the innovation/competitiveness proposals of Congress and the Administration. If you are not among the 9% of U.S. members who have already written to Congress and the president using the APS software, please take a moment to do so now. It is quick and easy: http://www.aps.org/policy/tools/alerts.
I would also ask that you forward this message to colleagues, students, friends or family that support science research funding.

At this URL, you will find pre-written messages to your Senators, Representatives and President Bush. You may send these letters as they are, modify them, or write your own. While individualizing your letter is not essential, please at least make minor edits to the subject line and the first line of the text of each email so that these emails are more individualized. (See webpage pointers below for further instruction.)

The APS Washington Office continues to work hard for to mitigate the damage to science and relies on your actions to convince lawmakers that they must provide remedies.


WEBPAGE POINTERS:
(1) While individualizing your letter is not essential, we ask that you make minor edits to the subject line and the first line of the text of each email.
(2) If you are a government employee, please do not use government resources to send a communication.
(3) Your browser will take you to a page where you will enter your name and address.
(4) After entering your address, click the "Edit/Send Email button". A window with an individual email message to the four offices will appear.
Click "Send Emails" to transmit the communication.
(5) Electronic submission is preferred.
(6) For further help, write to opa@aps.org.

If you haven't sent out your e-mail, we could sure use your help. As you can see, the impact from this devastating budget isn't confined to just high energy physics and nuclear physics. The collateral damage goes even beyond physics.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

President Bush's budget proposal for FY09 has been released. If you want to read the Dept. of Energy's portion of the budget, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/appendix/doe.pdf" .

There's good news and bad news. The good news is that basic science research is being proposed to receive a substantial increase across the board. The bad news is that we've seen this before in FY08 budget, and see the disaster we are in right now. There are two major reason why I am highly pessimistic that this will go through in time for the start of the new Fiscal year (Oct 1st):

1. The size of the budget and the size of the projected budget deficit. The current Democratic-controlled congress would not want to pass something like this.

2. The presidential election, with a new president coming in in January.

This all points to a continuing resolution come the start of FY09. This means that science funding will have to live with the current disastrous funding level for many more months, with no relief in sight.

I know things can get worse, but really, there isn't that far left to go to hit rock bottom.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Zz, how badly does this affect programs outside HEP? For instance, does Argonne MSD face any cuts? Will this affect their recruiting/post doc offers in this coming year?

Hey Gokul,

I have a follow up to this question of yours. Don't miss the Feb 1, 2008 issue of Science. There is a piece written by Adrian Cho on how the BES section of DOE is being affected by this current budget crisis. It is more severe than even I had heard, even when they are not affected as badly as high energy physics and nuclear physics.

Zz.

 

[Gokul43201]

Hey Gokul,

I have a follow up to this question of yours. Don't miss the Feb 1, 2008 issue of Science. There is a piece written by Adrian Cho on how the BES section of DOE is being affected by this current budget crisis. It is more severe than even I had heard, even when they are not affected as badly as high energy physics and nuclear physics.

Zz.

Yes, it's been a terrible hiring season this year.

But it looks like things might get just a little bit better. Congress just passed an emergency spending bill for NSF and DoE (Office of Science).

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-fermi-lab-jobs-saved_both_28jun28,0,3964738.story

In a 92-6 vote, the Senate passed an emergency spending bill that includes $62.5 million to the Department of Energy to ensure that Fermilab, Argonne National Laboratory and other facilities can continue research and retain staff, the office of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) reported.

The National Science Foundation will receive another $62.5 million for critical research, part of which will benefit the two laboratories, Durbin's office stated.

 

[ZapperZ]

The supplemental budget is merely a band aid. Fundamental philosophy regarding science funding still hasn't changed. Not only that, we will be saddled with a continuing resolution come the new fiscal year, because Congress would not pass a new budget until the new president is in office. So we will continue to have the disastrous FY08 budget well into 2009.

Things are not looking good at all.

Zz.

 

[Fearless]

How much is the total spending on science (non-weaponrelated research) in the US? How much did they cut, what in the budget went up in spending?

Actually I find this appalling. But it's what I expect of the state, when they sense they can get away with it, they spend nothing on science, when they need it they overspend and waste tax-dollars.