The all-important FY 2005 Energy and Water Development Appropriations
Bill and its accompanying report have been released. The following are
selections from House Appropriations Committee report 108-554 regarding
the Office of Science. Subsequent FYIs will provide report language
regarding other issues of interest to the physics community, including
the Bush Administration's nuclear weapons initiatives. To review the
complete committee report language that includes External Regulation
of DOE Science Laboratories, Open Competition, Performance Measures
and Science Laboratories Infrastructure, see http://thomas.loc.gov/
FYI #74 at http://www.aip.org/fyi/2004/074.html
has additional budget numbers.
OFFICE OF SCIENCE:
"The Committee has provided additional [FY 2005] funding
for the Office of Science to address the following Committee priorities:
high performance computing; additional operating time, equipment upgrades,
and staffing to support increased research opportunities at Office of
Science user facilities; nanoscale science research; remediation of
safety deficiencies at DOE Science laboratories; and restoration of
domestic fusion funding displaced by the new international fusion initiative.
The Committee also provides additional funding to continue essential
research and development and preconceptual design for the Rare Isotope
Accelerator."
HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS: "The Committee recommends a total
of $753,380,000 for high energy physics, an increase of $16,000,000
over the budget request. The control level is at the High Energy Physics
level. The additional funds are provided to meet increased electricity
costs at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and to increase
operating time and enhance user support at SLAC and the Fermi National
Accelerator Laboratory. The Committee supports the Department's collaboration
with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on the
Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
(AMS), and the Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM), and encourages NASA
to maintain the planned schedule for these missions."
NUCLEAR PHYSICS: "The Committee recommendation for nuclear
physics is $415,040,000, an increase of $14,000,000 over the budget
request. An additional $7,000,000 is provided to continue research and
development and initiate conceptual design activities for the Rare Isotope
Accelerator, and an additional $7,000,000 is provided to increase utilization
of the user facilities in the Nuclear Physics program."
BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES (BES): "The Committee recommendation
for basic energy sciences is $1,076,530,000, an increase of $13,000,000
over the budget request. For purposes of reprogramming during fiscal
year 2005, the Department may allocate funding among all operating accounts
within Basic Energy Sciences.
BES "Research.--The Committee recommendation includes $612,228,000
for materials sciences and engineering, and $232,422,000 for chemical
sciences, geosciences, and energy biosciences. The additional $13,000,000
in these accounts is to fund additional research on nanoscale science,
including research on low cost nanoparticles using plasma reactors at
the Idaho National Laboratory, and increase operating time on the Basic
Energy Sciences user facilities. Also included within this account is
$7,673,000 for the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
(EPSCoR), the same as the budget request.
BES "Construction.--The Committee recommendation includes $231,880,000
for Basic Energy Sciences construction projects, the same as the requested
amount. The Committee recommendation provides the requested funding
of $80,535,000 for the Spallation Neutron Source (99-E-334) at Oak Ridge
National Laboratory; $32,085,000 for the Molecular Foundry (04-R-313)
at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; $30,897,000 for the Center
for Integrated Nanotechnologies (03-R-313) at Los Alamos and Sandia
National Laboratories; $20,075,000 for PED (03-SC-002) and $30,000,000
for long-lead procurements (05-R-320) for the Linac Coherent Light Source
at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center; $18,465,000 for the Center
for Functional Nanomaterials (05-R-321) at Brookhaven National Laboratory;
$17,811,000 for the Center for Nanophase Material Sciences (03-R-312)
at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and $2,012,000 for PED to support
the various nanoscale science research centers (02-SC-002)."
FUSION ENERGY SCIENCES: "The Committee recommendation
for fusion energy sciences is $276,110,000, an increase of $12,000,000
over the budget request. The additional $12,000,000 is to be used to
increase the utilization of existing large and small experiments; further
work in inertial fusion technology; take advantage of opportunities
in High Energy Density Physics, including research on fast ignition,
and large-scale scientific computing; and provide for cost-effective
construction and development of the National Compact Stellarator Experiment.
The Committee notes the delay in site selection for the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and expects the Department
to reduce its planned expenditures on ITER in fiscal year 2005 in consideration
of this delay."
BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH: "The Committee
recommendation for biological and environmental research is $571,590,000,
an increase of $75,000,000 over the budget request. The Committee recommendation
provides an additional $75,000,000 to maintain the program at approximately
the same funding level as fiscal year 2004, which included several Congressionally-directed
projects.
"The Committee does not provide the requested $5,000,000 to
initiate Project Engineering and Design for the proposed new facility
for the production and characterization of proteins and molecular tags.
The Committee does not agree with the Department's strategy of restricting
competition for such a facility to only the DOE national laboratories.
The Department should present in the fiscal year 2006 budget request
an alternate procurement strategy for this and future Genomes to Life
(GTL) facilities that will maximize rather than limit competition and
will allow universities and other entities to compete with DOE national
laboratories for these new GTL facilities. The Committee is aware that
NASA has, for decades, conducted competitions for the development of
research instrumentation among universities, NASA, DOE, and other government
laboratories, and other entities. The Department is directed to develop
a comparable approach to competition."
ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING RESEARCH: "The Committee
recommendation is $234,340,000, an increase of $30,000,000 over the
budget request, with not more than $25,000,000 of the increase devoted
to hardware. The Committee provides these additional funds to support
the Office of Science initiative to develop the hardware, software,
and applied mathematics necessary for a leadership-class supercomputer
to meet scientific computation needs. The Committee is disappointed
that the efforts of the High End Computing Revitalization Task Force
(HEC RTF), under the lead of the Office of Science and Technology Policy
(OSTP), did not translate into increased fiscal year 2005 funding requests
for advanced scientific computing by any non-defense agencies other
than the Department of Energy. The Department is encouraged to make
substantial time available on its new leadership-class supercomputer
to the laboratories of other government agencies, universities, and
others with a compelling need for this capability, and to select these
external users on a competitive basis as is presently done for users
of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center."
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