From: Flemming Videbaek (videbaek@sgs1.hirg.bnl.gov)
Date: Thu Feb 13 2003 - 10:15:44 EST
Dear Collaborator,
I will give you an update on the situation around thet RHIC running to the best of my understanding.
The budget process of approving the FY03 is still ongoing in Washington, and thus RHIC
IC has been operating under a continuing resolution i.e. only spending at last years budget level. This
does imply that fund for running RHIC runs out very soon, unless a budget comes into place.
RHIC management has therefore taken the following position. I cite the slide shown by Phil Pile at yesterdays coordination meeting.
"If the DOE buget situation is not resolved by late in the day of Feb 14,then we will go into standby mode (all off, but RHIC cryo and RF). STandby begins at first end of store after 8:00 am Sarurday 15.
If budget situation is not resolved by ~ end of Feb we will begin RHIC cryo warm-up an RHIC shutdown."
The buget is moving forward and as you can see from the citation below, but also from an e-mail circulated
by R.Seto. Thus there is hope that a final deal may be reached soon and that RHIC can continue running possibly after a short standby period.
best regards
Flemming
------------------------------------------------------
Flemming Videbaek
Physics Department
Brookhaven National Laboratory
tlf: 631-344-4106
fax 631-344-1334
e-mail: videbaek@bnl.gov
The following is an citation form this Mornings New Youk Times giving some general background on the
poliyical proess.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 - Congressional negotiators reached a deal today on a $397.4 billion spending measure that finances most of the federal government through Sept. 30 after they resolved disputes over farm aid and environmental provisions.
Lawmakers and aides said the final compromise was reached this morning in meetings among Republican Congressional leaders and will require $3.1 billion in farm relief to come out of existing agriculture programs rather than new spending. Some contentious environmental provisions regarding Alaska were also scaled back, aides said.
"After sabout a month of good, hard negotiating, we have come to a fair agreement," said Representative C. W. Bill Young, Republican of Florida and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "This bill should receive wide support."
The House could take up the measure Thursday, and lawmakers say they hope to pass it by the end of the week, finally completing last year's fiscal business more than four months after the deadline.
Even if Congress passes the bill, its break from the appropriations process will be brief. The administration is already preparing to submit a supplemental spending bill seeking another $20 billion to cover its antiterrorism campaign after getting $10 million in this measure for defense and intelligence operations. Lawmakers will also have to start almost immediately on the spending bills for 2004.
The so-called omnibus spending bill is huge, running well over 1,000 pages and covering all federal agencies except the Pentagon.
Packed into the spending bill that would traditionally be 11 measures is money for every agency from agriculture to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It provides $3.5 billion for local emergency crews, $1.5 billion for election overhaul and $3.1 billion more than the president requested for the Department of Education.
"The White House has the wrong priorities when it comes to education and Congress is putting funding for our schools back on course," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, applauding the school financing.
Democrats say the measure, put together by leaders of the Republican-controlled House and Senate, still falls short of adequately financing security for the nation's borders and nuclear power plants or environmental programs.
Spending for the Department of the Interior was cut slightly from last year. An analysis by the House Democratic Appropriations Committee staff said the bill was $110 million below President Bush's request for national parks and $30 million lower than he sought for wildlife refuges. While conservation groups applauded a decision to drop a plan to exempt Alaskan forest land from a new roadless program, they said other provisions could increase timbering in national forests.
"This bill is wrong on a number of fronts," said Senator Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader. "It falls short of what is needed on homeland security, and it continues the Bush administration assault on the environment."
The measure included an extra $50 million for NASA to cover its investigation into the Columbia disaster and almost $50 billion over 10 years to increase payments to doctors for treating Medicare patients. It provides Amtrak with $1.05 billion, near the level requested by the railroad. The measure includes an across-the-board cut of 0.6 to 0.7 percent in all federal spending to cover add-ons in the measure, according to the Appropriations Committee.
The spending gyrations by Congress are the result of a budget impasse from last year that left the annual appropriations process in tatters.
Only 2 of the 13 bills passed and most of the federal government has been operating on 2002 spending levels since Oct. 1.
When Republicans took control of the Senate in the November elections, members of the spending panels agreed to stick close to Mr. Bush's spending limits, which complicated their efforts to put together a final package that included the drought relief.
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