Proposed budget cuts target science

A "Sputnik moment" or a "kaputnik" one for U.S. science? With a federal budget battle showdown underway, science looks like collateral damage, say former federal officials, with proposed cuts to research that they consider severe. At stake, they warn, is the nation's long-term economic growth. "Some of these are almost punitive cuts for science," says Raymond Orbach, who headed the Energy Department's science office during the George W. Bush administration. Writing in Science magazine this week, Orbach says proposed research cuts "would effectively end America's legendary status as the leader of the worldwide scientific community." But with the federal budget deficit at $1.5 trillion this year, House Appropriations Committee chief Hal Rogers (R-KY) says such cuts "are necessary to show that we are serious about returning our nation to a sustainable financial path." The House put military, Medicare, Social Security and other mandatory spending off-limits for the cuts, leaving only the "discretionary" one-fifth of the $3.7 trillion federal budget, which includes science, on the butcher block. Chairman Rogers says the proposed cuts target "excessive, unnecessary and wasteful spending."