Washington

It is not looking a good year to be a physicist — or even a biologist — who depends on facilities supported by the US Department of Energy. Once again, the department is set to miss out on the large increases in science spending expected to emerge from this year's budget round in Washington.

Scientific societies fear that the many physics subdisciplines sponsored by the department — as well as other scientists who use such facilities — could face a funding crunch this autumn, when the budget process for 2001 is completed.

In February, President Bill Clinton's administration proposed a large budget increase for the Office of Science at the Department of Energy (DoE). He also suggested increases for the other main federal agencies that support basic research, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Had Congress approved it, the proposal would have raised the Office of Science's funding by 12%, to almost $3 billion. About half of the increase would have paid for a new Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

But, as the appropriations process winds its way through Congress, it has become clear that the NIH will get far more than the 5% increase requested by the administration. Lobbyists are confident that the NSF might also get close to the 17% budget boost that Clinton requested.

In contrast, the DoE's science programmes have drawn the short straw. “DoE is the one that is really hurting right now,” says David Schutt, head of government affairs at the American Chemical Society.

Last month, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would have reduced construction funding for the SNS from $280 million to $100 million, and also cut support for the Basic Energy Sciences and Biological and Environmental Research divisions at the Office of Science.

DoE officials say that the reductions would damage the department's ability to serve the growing demand from NIH- funded biologists for its large facilities.

In demand: biologists are the biggest users of the Brookhaven's synchrotron light source. Credit: BNL

At the National Synchrotron Light Source at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, for example, biologists studying protein structure are now the largest user group. “I don't think it is appreciated what an important role DoE now plays in the biological sciences,” says Brookhaven's director John Marburger.

Last week, the Senate appropriations subcommittee for Energy and Water, chaired by Senator Pete Domenici (Republican, New Mexico), passed a plan that would reprieve each of these programmes but instead cut the core physics programmes at the agency.

Under the Senate plan, high-energy physics — already struggling to live with Clinton's request (see Nature 404 , 909; 2000) — would lose $40 million; nuclear physics and fusion would each lose $20 million.

Domenici: trying to hold out for extra money. Credit: AP

The stand-off between these two versions of the Energy and Water appropriations bill worries science lobbyists for at least three reasons: the bill is clearly short of money, there is pressure to pass it quickly, and, most importantly, the administration has decided not to veto it.

Domenici would like to sit on the bill until after the August recess, in the hope that it could share in the extra money that Congress and the administration are expected to find in September. But the Congressional leadership wants the Energy and Water bill passed quickly.

Mike Lubell, head of government affairs at the American Physical Society, predicts that the House and the Senate will split their differences without providing any extra money — leaving most programmes in the Office of Science facing modest but painful cuts.

Scientific societies are trying to prevent this. But the DoE's science programmes are vulnerable following its security problems with nuclear weapons and fierce clashes between Congressional leaders and its secretary, Bill Richardson.

The Senate has proposed a $2.7 billion increase for the NIH, and it is thought that, after late budget negotiations, this is what it will get.