Representatives Advocate Increased Fusion Funding

The time is drawing closer when House and Senate appropriators divvy up allocations and begin drafting funding bills for fiscal year 1999. Some concerned House Members have signed a letter urging stronger FY 1999 support for DOE’s fusion energy sciences program than the $228 million requested by President Clinton. (The current FY 1998 appropriation is $232 million.) Fusion funding was cut by over one-third in 1996 and has never caught up to previous levels. The letter, to House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Joseph McDade (R-PA), calls for “a minimum of $250 million for this important program in FY 1999.” Initiated by Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) and Tim Roemer (D-IN), the letter now has 82 signatories, of both parties.

The suggested $250 million funding level for FY 1999 is equal to the amount recommended in a September 1997 report on energy R&D by the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST.) PCAST went on to recommend that fusion funding rise to a stable annual level of $320 million by the year 2002 (see FYI #7 .) The text of the letter and a list of signatories follows:

April 28, 1998

The Honorable Joseph M. McDade
Chairman, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
H-218 Capitol Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman McDade:

We are writing in support of the Department of Energy’s Fusion Energy Sciences program and to request that your Subcommittee provide a minimum of $250 million for this important program in FY 1999.

As is described in the September 30, 1997 report of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), “The objective of DOE’s fusion energy sciences program is to develop the scientific and technological basis for fusion as a long-term energy option for the United States and the world. The fusion R&D program is strongly centered in basic research and supports the important field of plasma science. Results and techniques from fusion plasma science have had fundamental and pervasive impact in many other scientific fields, and they have made substantial contributions to industry and manufacturing.”

This past year has seen landmark results and progress in fusion research around the world. This progress comes at a time when there is renewed interest in the U.S. in both research and development in general and in the need to develop alternative energy sources. While fusion energy is a long-term prospect, it represents what may eventually become a technological development of extraordinary economic and environmental importance.

Despite its importance and the substantial progress being made, the fusion program is currently laboring under a significant funding shortfall as is evidenced by the lack of adequate funding for new and innovative fusion approaches, significant under utilization of existing experimental facilities, insufficient dollars for basic plasma and fusion theory and science, and inadequate funding for work with our international partners. As the PCAST and other recent studies have concluded, adequate funding for this program requires at least $250 million instead of the current $230 million level.

Fusion research is unique in its status as both a basic science program and an energy research program and it deserves to be adequately supported as an important part of our nation’s research and development portfolio. While not addressing every shortfall in fusion research funding, the PCAST recommended funding for fusion energy research is an acceptable compromise between program needs and the real fiscal constraints facing the federal government and we urge your support for it.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Sincerely,

Bud Cramer (D-AL)
Xavier Becerra (D-CA) Howard Berman (D-CA)
Brian Bilbray (R-CA) *George Brown (D-CA)
*Ken Calvert (R-CA) Tom Campbell (R-CA)
*Lois Capps (D-CA) Gary Condit (D-CA)
Chris Cox (R-CA) Duke Cunningham (R-CA)
Juilian Dixon (D-CA) Calvin Dooley (D-CA)
David Dreier (R-CA) Anna Eshoo (D-CA)
Bob Filner (D-CA) Elton Gallegly (R-CA)
Jane Harman (D-CA) Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
Jay Kim (R-CA) Tom Lantos (D-CA)
Barbara Lee (D-CA) *Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
Matthew Martinez (D-CA) Buck McKeon (R-CA)
Frank Riggs (R-CA) James Rogan (R-CA)
Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) Loretta Sanchez (D-CA)
Brad Sherman (D-CA) *Ellen Tauscher (D-CA)
Esteban Torres (D-CA) Diana DeGette (D-CO)
Scott McInnis (R-CO) Charlie Norwood (R-GA)
Ray LaHood (R-IL) *Tim Roemer (D-IN)
William Delahunt (D-MA) Barney Frank (D-MA)
Joe Kennedy (D-MA) Marty Meehan (D-MA)
Richard Neal (D-MA) John Olver (D-MA)
John Tierney (D-MA) *Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD)
Bob Ehrlich (R-MD) Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
*Connie Morella (R-MD) *Vern Ehlers (R-MI)
Robert Andrews (D-NJ) Bob Franks (R-NJ)
+Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Frank Pallone (D-NJ) Michael Pappas (R-NJ)
William Pascrell (D-NJ) Donald Payne (D-NJ)
Steven Rothman (D-NJ) Marge Roukema (R-NJ)
Jim Saxton (R-NJ) Christopher Smith (R-NJ)
Gary Ackerman (D-NY) *Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY)
Eliot Engel (D-NY) Maurice Hinchey (D-NY)
Edolphus Towns (D-NY) *Michael Doyle (D-PA)
Jon Fox (R-PA) James Greenwood (R-PA)
*Paul McHale (D-PA) *Curt Weldon (R-PA)
John Spratt (D-SC) John Duncan (R-TN)
*Bart Gordon (D-TN) Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)
*Ralph Hall (D-TX) *Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
*Nick Lampson (D-TX) *Pete Sessions (R-TX)
*Tom Davis (R-VA) Owen Pickett (D-VA)
Scott Klug (R-WI) *Members of House Science Committee.

+Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) is a member of the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee.