Couched in yesterday's war funding bill, the U.S. Senate approved $250 million worth of funding for the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a move that Sen. Dick Durbin says “restore[s] science funding that the (Bush) administration should have never cut.”
After Fermilab learned its budget would be slashed by $52 million last December, administrators at Batavia lab began planning for a reduction of nearly 200 employees (10 percent of their entire staff) through layoffs and attrition. Although a Fermilab spokesperson told Crain's that the "emergency funding won’t alter Fermilab’s plans to trim 140 jobs in the coming weeks," the infusion might allow them to rehire employees. Fifty-five million dollars would be used on fusion energy sciences, $45 million would go towards high energy physics, and $150 million would fund federal science research.
Now, the focus turns toward the U.S. House, where funding is being championed by scientist-turned-politician Bill Foster, whose district encompasses the lab:
A spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, a Democrat from Geneva who represents the district that includes Fermilab, said he is hopeful the funding can be inserted into the House version.
"We know it's going to be a fight ahead of us, but we are prepared to fight as hard as we can and talk to leadership and try to get this included in the final conference report," spokeswoman Shannon O'Brien said.
Durbin also included an amendment in the war funding bill aimed at protecting Metro East residents from having to purchase pricey flood insurance premiums. Because of the weak state of the levees along the Mississippi River, the Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to declare the Metro East area a flood hazard zone, which would require residents there to purchase flood insurance until the levees are repaired. Durbin's amendment would delay the implementation of that mandate.
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