2 cannot be exploited within the current budget. Program management is tight and lean and is carried out by some of the most experienced research managers in the Government. There is an appropriate balance between continuity of support and funding of "new starts." 2. It is important to realize that there are three missions for BES, overlapping and closely related. The first is underpinning through basic research the mission of the Department of Energy. When the next crisis in the availability and price of transportable fuels occurs it will become apparent to all that more basic research should have been performed. The uncertainty in the time of harvesting research should not mislead us into underestimating its importance or reducing its support. Second, BES shares in many areas, such as materials or chemistry, the underpinning of the total Federal basic and applied research program. BES does its part, along with agencies like ONR and NSF, of supporting the basic research on which Government and industrial technology is based. Although industry, especially a few large companies with good traditions, supports some basic research, no company can afford to do much since the benefits will be shared with its competitors. It is important to note that, unlike some other DOE and some other Federal research support, all of the BES programs are in areas that are applicable, areas where scientific results have great promise of creating new products or of making more efficient and effective the provision of products and services. 3 Third, BES has created and nourished unique research user facilities for the benefit of the entire Federal, university, and industrial research and development enterprise. These user facilities, such as research reactors and synchrotron light sources, have been one of the great success stories of the last forty years. Some have been closed appropriately (e.g., early research reactors) as more powerful tools became available; but the remarkable effectiveness of sources of light (including ultraviolet and x-ray radiation) produced by accelerating high energy electrons or positrons has required increasing the number of these sources, and it will be some time before any can be retired without substantial damage to research productivity. These user facilities also provide a most effective arena for technology transfer, since people from universities, industry, and Government interact at these facilities in healthy and productive ways. Under the new accounting for FY 1989 the seven existing BES facilities (and the research and development for two new ones) will be a subprogram within the account "Basic Research User Facilities." Our BESAC fully supports the existing and proposed facilities (including the preliminary research and development for the Advanced Neutron Source which evidently remains in the BES budget request) and suggests that your Subcommittee take considerable pride in them. 3. My third and final point is derived from a comparison of the three-part responsibilities just described with the appropriation history. The BES responsibilities have expanded with the need for more basic research to support an increasingly technological economy and with the expansion of other Federal programs, notably NSF and DoD. But the growth in BES appropriations has not kept pace with the growth in responsibilities. I recognize the pressures on the Administration and the Congress that are produced by the budget deficit and the evident inability of the Congress to control the addition of specific programs, often without additional dollars. But it would be a sad mistake to restrict basic research, an appealing course since the damage would not become immediately apparent. Underfunding basic research will result in the same kind of intergenerational transfer as the budget deficit, since our children and grandchildren will suffer. In this light, the DOE 1989 Budget Request for BES (and BES-related facilities under BRUF) is far too modest. Thank you for your attention. I should be happy to answer questions about this brief testimony, about our report, or about the functioning of the BESAC. A REPORT OF THE BASIC ENERGY DOE/ER-0359 1987 REVIEW OF THE BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES PROGRAM OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Letters between Dr. James F. Decker, Acting Director, BES Budgets and Personnel by BESAC Subcommittees Letter to Dr. Robert Sproull from James F. Decker, Letters to Dr. Robert Sproull from John S. Herrington 75 |