Wednesday, December 3
3:30 p.m. DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4:00 p.m. Fermilab Colloquium - 1 West
Speaker: J. Collar, University of Chicago
Title: Low-Background Detector Development at EFI: WIMPS, Axions, Neutrinos and Other Sneaky Beasts

Weather at Fermilab

Mike Witherell

Yesterday, President Bush signed into law H.R. 2754, the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, which funds programs of the Energy Department. This law includes funding for the high energy physics program at the level of $738 million, the same level as in the President's budget request.

Although it will take some time to understand the exact funding level for Fermilab for FY2004, we can expect it to be close to the level in the budget request, which was $288.5 million. This represents another stringent funding year for the laboratory, only one percent more than we received two years ago. Our planning has already accommodated this funding level, however, and the final legislation will not cause a significant change in these plans.

You may have read recent news stories on another energy bill. On November 21, the Senate did not invoke cloture on the comprehensive Energy Policy Act of 2003, which meant that it was not forwarded to the President to be signed into law. Among many other provisions, this bill included guidance to appropriators as they determine future budgets for the Office of Science. This was an authorization bill, however, and not the appropriations bill for fiscal year 2004 that directly funds high energy physics and other programs of the Office of Science, so it had no direct effect on high-energy physics funding for the coming year.

If you have questions about funding, I encourage you to send them to today@fnal.gov. We'll publish questions and answers-to the best of our understanding.