Key Subcommittee Recommends $620 Million for SSC; Outlook Uncertain
There is both good news and bad news to report about the Superconducting Super Collider. On June 10, the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee agreed to SSC funding of $620 million for the next fiscal year. This is only $20 million below the Clinton Administration’s request, and represents an increase of more than $100 million over the current year. Despite this good omen, both supporters and critics of the collider agree that upcoming House and Senate floor votes on the project look increasingly uncertain.
Details of the subcommittee’s bill, which funds all DOE general science programs, will not be released until the full House Appropriations Committee votes on the bill on June 17. It is unlikely that the committee will change the funding level. Senate counterparts should provide funding around this same level, as Energy chairman J. Bennett Johnston (D-Louisiana) is a strong SSC supporter.
A combination of forces is significantly weakening the outlook for the collider. Last year, during a short-lived period of cost-cutting in the House, SSC funding was terminated. With the recent breakdown of President Clinton’s Btu tax package, pressure is again being applied to cut spending. Big projects are especially vulnerable, and some in Washington are wondering if Clinton may move to cut spending by damning with faint praise the collider. On June 7, White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said, “At this point, the president continues to support those programs [including the space station.] They’re in the budget.”
The recent election of a new Republican senator in Texas, a state now represented by two Republicans, lessens the pressure on the White House to push for the project. SSC funding seems to be becoming a more partisan issue.
Two other factors are also coming into play. In its April budget submission, DOE predicted on the order of a $2 billion increase in the SSC’s cost and a three-year delay in the completion date. And, unfavorable publicity over some questionable SSC expenditures of around $500,000, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times, is assured later this month when Chairman John Dingell (D-Michigan) convenes a hearing on the SSC. Dingell’s activities garner much attention, and the timing of this hearing could not be worse for SSC supporters.
The fate of the SSC is going to be decided this year by all of the Members of the House and Senate. SSC opponents are moving to ensure that in this fall’s conference committee, House conferees represent the will of the House. This was not the case last year. In 1992, the House voted to kill the SSC by a vote of 232-181. The Senate approved funding, and the collider was ultimately funded. Both supporters and opponents are looking for the vote to be far closer this time. Senator Dale Bumpers (D-Arkansas) predicts, “We’ve got the best chance this year we’ve ever had to kill it in the Senate.” Rep. Jim Chapman (D-Texas), a strong SSC supporter, warned “if we can hold that [the $620 million] all the way through, I’d say it’s more than a major victory. It would be a miracle.”
