Friday, 15 January 1988
1.
THE PRESIDENT'S FY 89 BUDGET REQUEST
won't be ready to go to
Congress for another month. The statutory deadline was 4 Jan,
but Congress is in no position to complain. The Office of
Management and Budget couldn't get going on the FY 89 budget
until the FY 88 appropriation was enacted. The agency requests
went to OMB in the fall. OMB has now sent the tattered remains
back to the agencies, most of whom will presumably appeal. Some
of the first-round figures: NSF was given a 12% overall increase
in the first "pass back," with research getting about 15%.
Apparently, however, Mr. Bloch
has already succeeded in negotiating a somewhat larger increase.
DOE is being held to the 2% increase in overall discretionary
funding agreed on at the budget summit. The Supercollider is on
schedule at $230M, but other programs are being shaved to pay for
it. About $66M is being taken from research programs on fossil
fuel, solar energy and conservation, but the major portion will
come from the operating budgets of other high-energy facilities.
2
. THE BUDGET DEFICIT WILL OVERSHOOT THE '89 TARGET BY $30B
in
spite of the budget summit according to a new economic projection
by the Congressional Budget Office, which is always more
pessimistic than the White House and always closer to the truth.
From Reagan's statement this week, it seems that the "voodoo
economics" of past years has been replaced by the Tinker-Bell
economy -- if we all believe, it will recover.
3.ABOUT 900 PROPOSALS FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTERS
are
expected by NSF. Only 5 to 10 were expected to be approved this
year (WN 4 Sep 87), based on a larger
budget increase. It might
be better to send in your Publishers Clearing House application.
4.JAPANESE SUPPORT FOR THE SSC
is being sought by a delegation
from the DOE. Al Trivelpiece, the former Director of the Office
of Energy Research who led the successful effort to persuade the
President to propose the SSC, has been reactivated for the trip.
Trivelpiece now directs the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. Japan is expected to be a major partner
in the project, but it will probably buy-in with yen rather than
dollars by offering to supply components such as magnets.
5.NEW YORK BECAME THE FIRST STATE TO WITHDRAW A SUPERCOLLIDER PROPOSAL
from the short list. Opposition from local residents in
the Rochester area who want to preserve the bucolic atmosphere of
the region, including the two Congressmen whose districts are
affected (WN 8 Jan 88), led to Governor
Cuomo's decision. The
state spent $3M on its campaign for the SSC. It's like Yogi
Berra said, "If people don't want to come out to the ballpark,
nobody's going to stop them."
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