DOE FY1996 Budget Bill Goes To House Floor - HEP, Nuclear, ICF

The House fiscal year 1996 appropriations bill for the Department of Energy, H.R. 1905, passed the House Appropriations Committee on June 20. It is scheduled to go to the House floor sometime next week. The accompanying report, House Report 104-149, provides details of the Committee’s views. The report states that “funding recommendations for Department of Energy programs in fiscal year 1996 are significantly below the Department’s fiscal year 1996 budget request in many areas.” Selected portions of the report are summarized in FYI #84 and below:

Under the category of GENERAL SCIENCE AND RESEARCH ACTIVITIES:

“The General Science and Research Activities programs are concerned with understanding the nature of matter and energy and the fundamental forces and particles of nature.... While these programs are not directly associated with energy technology in the near- or mid-term, they support basic research whose aim is to provide new knowledge which is expected to have long-term scientific and technological impacts on energy development and utilization and on other aspects of our society.

“The Committee’s funding recommendation for General Science and Research Activities reflects the continued role of the federal government in fundamental scientific research where research is not market-driven and is difficult for the private sector to conduct. The Committee strongly supports the budget request [of $100 million] for the Scientific Facilities Utilization Initiative to enhance and increase the use of fundamental science and user facilities, but due to severe funding constraints, has found it necessary to reduce the overall budget request. It is the Committee’s hope that Congressional actions such as merging operating and capital funding along with a lessening of departmental internal regulations and oversight reviews will compensate in part for this reduction.”

HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS: “Due to budget constraints, the Committee recommendation for high energy physics is $677,000,000, a reduction of $8,552,000 [or 1.3%] from the budget request of $685,552,000.” [FY95 appropriation: $642.1 million.]

NUCLEAR PHYSICS: “The recommendation for nuclear energy physics is $304,500,000, a reduction of $16,578,000 [or 5.2%] from the budget request of $321,078,000.” [FY95 appropriation: $331.5 million.]

PROGRAM DIRECTION: “Funding for program direction has been reduced [by 12.8%] to $9,500,000 from the request of $10,900,000.” [FY95 appropriation: $10.4 million.]

TOTAL, GENERAL SCIENCE AND RESEARCH ACTIVITIES: $991,000,000; reduced by 2.6% from a request of $1,017,530,000. [FY95 appropriation: $984.0 million.]

Under the category of ATOMIC ENERGY DEFENSE WEAPONS ACTIVITIES:

INERTIAL CONFINEMENT FUSION: “The Committee is pleased to recognize the achievements of the Naval Research Laboratory which has recently completed the Nike laser, and the University of Rochester which has completed the OMEGA laser. The Committee has consistently supported these facilities and expects both to contribute to the research and technology development efforts in the inertial confinement fusion program.

“Funding for construction of the National Ignition Facility has been deferred without prejudice by the Committee. The Committee supports a strong stockpile stewardship program in the absence of underground nuclear testing, but is concerned that it will be difficult to assure funds are available in the future to support this project as well as other critical needs in the weapons program.

“While not agreeing to the start of capital construction, the Committee has provided $33,600,000, an increase of $10,000,000 over the budget request, to continue preliminary design activities associated with the National Ignition Facility. This will permit the Department to move beyond the conceptual stage of the facility design and begin some construction design of the conventional facilities and the laser and target special equipment.”