December 20, 2007

STATEMENT FROM URA PRESIDENT FRED BERNTHAL ON FY2008 DOE HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS BUDGET

Despite encouraging preliminary Congressional actions, which largely endorsed the Administration’s FY2008 budget request for the DOE High Energy Physics (HEP) program and for Fermilab, the HEP budget included in the Omnibus Appropriations bill passed by Congress yesterday will seriously disrupt ongoing activities at Fermilab and severely impact our plans for the future. URA is also deeply concerned about the impact the FY2008 HEP budget will have on the faculty members and graduate students who carry out their research at Fermilab. In early December, I urged our member university presidents to contact Members of Congress on the need for full funding for DOE’s Office of Science programs, including HEP. Now, with the unfortunate outcome of the Omnibus Appropriation bill, I plan to appeal again to our university presidents and senior administrators to join with the HEP community in rallying support for restoration of the HEP budget.

On January 30 URA holds its annual Council of Presidents Meeting and Policy Forum at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. This event is attended by presidents or their senior representatives from URA’s 89 member universities, and features prominent guest speakers who are senior policy makers in Congress and in the research funding agencies. And of course, Fermilab Director Pier Oddone will give a full report at the Council meeting. Richard Herman, Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and 2008 URA Council Chair, Joe Wyatt, President Emeritus of Vanderbilt University and Chair of the URA Trustees, and I will be asking the URA presidents and representatives attending the Council meeting to join us in an aggressive effort to persuade Congress to redress the devastating impact this FY2008 HEP budget will have on Fermilab and on the future of the entire U.S. HEP program. As always, URA will support Fermilab and our outstanding Director in any way we can.

Fred Bernthal
President
Universities Research Association, Inc.