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DOE, NSF Deal with Disappointing Appropriations Reduced running times at user facilities, staff layoffs, and increased competition for awards are among the consequences anticipated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science and the National Science Foundation (NSF) of their fiscal year 2008 appropriations. Although the President and Congress showed strong support for major increases in their 2008 budgets, many NSF and DOE Office of Science programs were ultimately funded below levels consistent with the expected rate of inflation. In a regular appropriations cycle, the President submits a budget request to Congress for the upcoming fiscal year by early February. Congress then has until October 1 to complete the 12 appropriations bills that provide funding for federal government operations and activities. But by mid-December 2007, the President and Congress had agreed only on appropriations for the Department of Defense (passed November 13). Congress combined the remaining appropriations bills together into one omnibus bill, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which the President signed into law on December 26, 2007. Both the President and Congress initially endorsed large increases in the NSF and DOE Office of Science budgets. However, Congress also supported increases for a number of programs whose budgets the President had requested be cut, resulting in a domestic appropriations budget about $20 billion over the President’s request. In light of the President’s promise to veto any appropriations bill over budget, Congress cut funding in many areas—and the large increases for NSF and the DOE Office of Science disappeared. The DOE Office of Science budget for FY 2008 received a 4.6% increase over FY 2007. This is significantly less than the amounts originally endorsed by Congress and the President. High-energy physics, nuclear physics, fusion sciences, and basic energy sciences are hardest hit by the allocations, and many DOE-supported programs in these areas will be forced to cut staff and facilities run time, and some projects will be halted completely. Funding for the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) core research programs remains approximately flat in the FY 2008 appropriations—not accounting for inflation. The losses incurred by inflation mean that some projects will be shut down and some staff positions will be terminated. In addition, new BES initiatives in solar energy utilization, hydrogen research, advanced nuclear energy systems, and mid170

scale instrumentation cannot be supported under the 2008 appropriations. According to Harriet Kung, acting associate director of BES, “The shortfall in FY 2008 prevents BES from supporting most of the new energy research initiatives previously announced and requires BES to curtail existing research activities, scientific facilities operations, instrument development, and new facilities construction.” The Intense Pulsed Neutron Source at Argonne National Laboratory has been shut down as a result of the Act. The other BES user facilities—the synchrot