Anonymously contributed:
Note from Scooby: Hey contributor: who is this message from?
1000 more to go. I say lets Get-R-Done ASAP Nationally across the board.
To: all-employee
Subject: Update
As I promised to do in my column earlier this week, I want to update everyone as to the actions we're taking to inform Congress about what impact serious Federal budget cuts would have on the national laboratories.
I spent most of this week in Washington, D.C. with several of my fellow lab directors, visiting members of Congress. We delivered the message that thousands of jobs would be lost, and America's competitiveness and capacity for innovation in scientific research would be seriously jeopardized in both the short and long term if cuts proposed by the House are enacted. We plan to continue making those points with lawmakers between now and March 4, when the continuing resolution currently funding the Federal Government runs out.
To bring the point home, the laboratories undertook a budget exercise, showing how devastating an 18 percent cut would be in the middle of the fiscal year. For SLAC, such a cut would mean most activity at the lab would stop for the rest of the fiscal year and we would have to lay off or furlough up to 1000 staff. This message has made headway with some lawmakers, who discussed it in a press conference yesterday. A story about how the cuts would affect SLAC ran today in the Palo Alto Weekly on line.
It's important to keep in mind that these numbers represent a worst-case scenario. As I said in my column, there is a significant difference between what is being proposed by the House Appropriations Committee, and the President's budget priorities. It remains unlikely that a budget would pass both houses of Congress and be signed by the President with cuts as severe as these. Nevertheless, it's crucial that we continue to communicate how SLAC and other laboratories are making a difference, not only in providing jobs and benefits to our communities, but how innovations arising from national laboratory research is changing people's lives every day.
I'll continue to keep you informed as the situation develops.
Persis
Note from Scooby: Hey contributor: who is this message from?
1000 more to go. I say lets Get-R-Done ASAP Nationally across the board.
To: all-employee
Subject: Update
As I promised to do in my column earlier this week, I want to update everyone as to the actions we're taking to inform Congress about what impact serious Federal budget cuts would have on the national laboratories.
I spent most of this week in Washington, D.C. with several of my fellow lab directors, visiting members of Congress. We delivered the message that thousands of jobs would be lost, and America's competitiveness and capacity for innovation in scientific research would be seriously jeopardized in both the short and long term if cuts proposed by the House are enacted. We plan to continue making those points with lawmakers between now and March 4, when the continuing resolution currently funding the Federal Government runs out.
To bring the point home, the laboratories undertook a budget exercise, showing how devastating an 18 percent cut would be in the middle of the fiscal year. For SLAC, such a cut would mean most activity at the lab would stop for the rest of the fiscal year and we would have to lay off or furlough up to 1000 staff. This message has made headway with some lawmakers, who discussed it in a press conference yesterday. A story about how the cuts would affect SLAC ran today in the Palo Alto Weekly on line.
It's important to keep in mind that these numbers represent a worst-case scenario. As I said in my column, there is a significant difference between what is being proposed by the House Appropriations Committee, and the President's budget priorities. It remains unlikely that a budget would pass both houses of Congress and be signed by the President with cuts as severe as these. Nevertheless, it's crucial that we continue to communicate how SLAC and other laboratories are making a difference, not only in providing jobs and benefits to our communities, but how innovations arising from national laboratory research is changing people's lives every day.
I'll continue to keep you informed as the situation develops.
Persis
Comments
This sounds interesting, but I'm skeptical. Please understand.
Her father is Sidney Drell, who is a member for the LANS Board and he was also a founding member of the JASON Defense Advisory Group.
Not only is the esteemed Dr. Chu pretty much destroying what is left of our nuclear weapons research labs, he's also helping to destroy our whole US economy with his misguided far-left beliefs!
Original Message-----
From: owner-all-employee@slac.stanford.edu [mailto:owner-all-employee@slac.stanford.edu] On Behalf Of Drell, Persis S.
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 3:48 PM
To: all-employee
Subject: Update
Has Charlie McMillan been crowed Director yet? What about Brett Knapp? Has he been elevated to Charlie's former PAD position?
We never hear about these things here at this lab until it has been properly sanitized in official LANS public releases for the newspapers.
If you want to make a point, a little less ranting and a little more facts and logic would be nice. Spelling and punctuation count, too.
It's beginning to look more and more like a significant government shutdown is coming and it could last far longer than most people think.
Bummer!