FYI Number 108: August 22, 2001

Senate Report Language on FY 2002 DOE Appropriations

The Senate passed its FY 2002 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill on July 19. The Senate bill, S. 1171, would provide more funding (a total of $3,268.1 million) for DOE's Office of Science than would the White House or the House bill. Even so, in their committee report accompanying the bill, Senate appropriators remarked that "the relatively small funding increases provided to the Office of Science are inadequate." Selected language from the report, S. Rpt. 107-39, is provided below. See FYI #89 for a comparison with the House's recommended amounts and FYI #83 for comparable language from House report 107- 112. The full text of both reports can be found on the Library of Congress web site, THOMAS. (As with the House report, the FY 2001 budget figures given in the Senate report do not appear to match those provided by DOE in its budget request documents.)

OFFICE OF SCIENCE:

"The Committee recognizes that the relatively small funding increases provided to the Office of Science are inadequate. While most programs are funded above the Administration's request, the severe non-defense spending constraints that the Committee operates under have made it impossible to do justice to many of these outstanding programs and initiatives. Unlike the Administration's request, the Committee recommendation is sufficient to avoid any staff reductions at labs or universities."

HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS:

"The Committee recommendation includes $725,100,000 for high energy physics, an increase of $9,000,000 over the request. Within the amounts provided, the Committee recommends $2,000,000 for materials development of low temperature superconductors to support future high energy physics requirements; and an additional $7,000,000 for university support. Within available funds, the Committee recommends $1,000,000 for research, development, and initial demonstration in support of an experiment, to be conducted underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, to evaluate the mass of the neutrino through study of double beta decay of xenon-136. These funds may be used for extraction of the xenon-136 in a Russian nuclear city in coordination with the NNSA/Non-Proliferation programs."

NUCLEAR PHYSICS:

"The Committee recommends $373,000,000 for nuclear physics, an increase of $12,490,000 above the request and an increase of $3,110,000 above current year levels. The Committee recommends that the additional funds be used to enhance operation of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Virginia."

BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH:

"The Committee recommendation includes $490,000,000 for biological and environmental research, including $10,000,000 for construction of the laboratory for Comparative and Functional Genomics at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The recommendation includes an additional $16,000,000 above the requested level for the Genomes to Life program and $10,000,000 in additional funding above the requested level for the low dose effects program. Within the recommended amount, the Committee also recommends $7,000,000 in additional funding for computer upgrades and capital equipment costs at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL); $11,500,000 to complete the positron emission tomography facility at West Virginia University; and funding to continue the following on-going projects: the Natural Energy Laboratory in Hawaii, and the biological effects of exposure to low-level radioactivity. The recommendation also continues the free air carbon dioxide experiments at the current year level."

BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES:

"The Committee recommendation includes $1,040,705,000, an increase of $36,000,000 above the request and an increase of $27,335,000 over current year levels. For purposes of reprogramming in fiscal year 2002, the Department may allocate funding among all operating accounts within basic energy sciences upon written notice to the appropriate Congressional Committees.

"The Committee recommendation includes $12,000,000 for the Department's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research and $4,000,000 for programmatic activities at the National Center of Excellence in Photonics and Microsystems. The Committee's recommendation also includes $8,300,000 for the SPEAR 3 upgrade at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory.

"Additionally, the Committee recommends that the additional funds be used to support the following important activities: facility operations user support; completion of the Nanoscience Research Center project engineering and design; and additional work in computational sciences in materials and chemistry.

"Nanoscale Science Research Centers .--The Committee recommendation includes $4,000,000 for project engineering design work for three of five planned user centers for nanoscale science, engineering, and technology research. The Committee strongly supports this new initiative.

"Construction .--The Committee recommendation includes $291,000,000 to continue the Spallation Neutron Source, including $276,300,000 for construction (under Project 99 E 334) and $15,100,000 for other activities related to the project. The amount represents a $23,000,000 increase over current year funding. The Committee recommends $4,000,000 in project engineering and design funding at various locations (under Project 02 SC 002). The Committee also authorizes construction of the Nanoscience Research Center upon completion of the project engineering and design.

"The Committee recognizes the importance the SNS offers in advancing the frontiers of science and technology and the opportunities it will provide for future scientific and industrial research and development for the United States. The design and construction of this next-generation, accelerator-based, neutron scattering facility, located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is a collaborative effort involving six DOE national laboratories (Argonne, Brookhaven, Jefferson, Lawrence Berkeley, Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge)."

OTHER ENERGY RESEARCH PROGRAMS:

"The Committee recommendation provides $163,050,000 for other energy research programs, an increase of $18,050,000 over the current year appropriation. "Advanced Scientific Computing Research .--The Committee recommendation provides $163,050,000 for advanced scientific computing research. This amount is the amount of the request. The Committee directs that $15,000,000 of available funds be used to support the Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program and that $10,000,000 of available funds be used for terascale operating systems development."

MULTI-PROGRAM ENERGY LABORATORIES FACILITIES SUPPORT:

"The Committee recommends $30,175,000, the amount of the request, for multi-program energy laboratories facilities support. The amount recommended is $3,755,000 less than the current year. The program supports infrastructure activities at the five national labs under the direction of the Office of Science.... The recommendation includes construction funding for two projects, 02 SC 001 and MEL 001, at the level of the request."

FUSION ENERGY SCIENCES:

"The Committee recommendation for fusion energy sciences is $248,495,000, the amount of the request." (Nothing more is said about the Committee's recommendation for fusion.)

RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES:

Renewable Energy Resources does not fall under DOE's Office of Science, but because of the amount of attention it has received recently, a portion of the report language for this program is provided below:

"The Committee recommendation provides $435,600,000, for renewable energy resources, an increase of $59,815,000 over the current year appropriation, and $158,947,000 over the administration's request.... The recommendation for Renewable Energy Resources reflects the Committee's strong belief that only a balanced portfolio of production and distribution technologies and strategies will fulfill our Nation's long-term needs and goals for both energy and the environment. For that reason, the Committee recommendation includes substantial investments in renewable energy resources above the Administration's request. While the Administration's Report of the National Energy Policy Development Group recognized the importance of a clean and diverse portfolio of renewable domestic energy supplies, the Administration's budget, even as amended, provides inadequate resources to accomplish these goals."

Audrey T. Leath
Media and Government Relations Division
American Institute of Physics
fyi@aip.org
(301) 209-3094

Back to FYI Home