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Foster Votes For 2014 Appropriations Bill, Applauds Funding For Scientific Research and Development

January 16, 2014

Washington, D.C. – Today Congressman Bill Foster voted in favor of the Omnibus Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2014 which included robust funding levels for scientific research and development.

"While it wasn't perfect, I was pleased that the 2014 Appropriations bill preserves essential funding for scientific research and development," said Foster. "The work done at Argonne and Fermi National Labs not only supports our local economy, employing as many as 4,725 people in Illinois, but it is critical to our nation's long-term economic success. Funding scientific research and development results in one of the highest return-on-investments our nation can make. It is essential we continue to fully support funding for our national labs to preserve our global competitive advantage."

"With some proposing deep cuts, it was a tough struggle to preserve funding for scientific research and development, but with bipartisan support we were able to fund this important work at reasonable levels," added Foster.

The appropriations bill provides $5.07 billion in funding for the Office of Science. Funding for projects at Argonne and Fermi National Labs includes:

Argonne

  • $67 million for the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, which will help them to develop the next generation of supercomputers

  • $24.2 million for the second year of the Batteries and Energy Storage Innovation Hub, also known as the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR)

  • $20 million for Advanced Photon Source upgrade

Fermi

  • $797.5 million for High Energy Physics (HEP)

  • $26 million for Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE), including $10 million within the HEP research budget

  • $51 million allocated for HEP construction, which includes $35 million for mu2e and $16 million for LBNE PED

  • $34.9 million was included in the Science Laboratories Infrastructure program for Fermilab utility upgrades

The final bill includes $5.07 billion in funding for the Department of Energy's Office of Science. In April of 2013, Foster sent a letter to the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee requesting $5.1 billion for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, which is the same as President Obama's request for FY14. In addition, in July of 2013, Congressman Foster offered an amendment to the House Energy and Water Appropriations Bill to increase funding for the Department of Energy's Office of Science to $5.1 billion. This amendment failed 143-273, largely on party lines.