Watkins and Barton expressed hope that the fiscal 1993 funds would be restored by the Senate and would survive a House-Senate conference, but the project is clearly in jeopardy even if that happens. The SSC was slated to become the world's principal laboratory for particle research. More than $1 billion has already been spent on the SSC, which would consist of a 54-mile tunnel through which subatomic particles would be hurled against each other at nearly the speed of light. The $34 million is to be used for shutdown activities - just at the time when SSC scientists are scheduled to begin crucial tests of the giant magnets that would be key components of the project. In its vote on Eckart's amendment to the $21.8 billion energy and water projects appropriations bill for fiscal 1993, which later passed on a vote of 365 to 51, the House voted to kill all but $34 million of the $483.7 million earmarked for the SSC. Eckart (D-Ohio), who sponsored the amendment, as saying. "We can't continue spending money we don't have on projects we don't need," the Associated Press quoted Rep. He said House members are "beginning to come to grips" with the difficult choices that have to be made under the budget agreement, and the SSC could not withstand the competition from other projects with higher political and scientific priority. Howard Wolpe (D-Mich.), chairman of a science and technology subcommittee and a prominent opponent of the SSC. "The project had very serious problems on its merits," said Rep. It was intended as an instrument of "pure research" into the nature of matter and the origins of the universe, not as a prelude to a cure for cancer or a new source of non-polluting energy. Despite its enormous cost, it would not have any known or clearly defined benefit for human beings. It does not demonstrate good stewardship of the science and technology research base that the public has entrusted to the government." He said cancellation of the project would result in the loss of 7,800 jobs and jeopardize the Bush administration's already-foundering effort to entice foreign nations to invest in the SSC.Įarlier yesterday, President Bush wrote to House members urging their continued support for a "crucial investment" in the nation's science and technology future.īut the project became a victim of its own political weakness. Watkins said in a statement that he was "disappointed by the House action. He said the outcome "was not unexpected" in the current budget environment.īut Barton said he was surprised at the size of the vote: Last year's 86-vote margin of victory for the SSC turned into a 51-vote defeat last night, even though opponents "didn't say anything new."Įnergy Secretary James D. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), whose district includes Waxahachie.īarton, one of the project's biggest supporters, said he knew that members who have long sought to sacrifice the SSC on the altar of budget austerity would try to kill it this year as they have in the past several years. "The House was looking for a blood sacrifice and they found it in the SSC," said Rep. The Bush administration was prepared to spend $8.2 billion in this decade to complete the SSC, which is under construction near Waxahachie, Tex. The 232 to 181 vote against the SSC could mean the end of an ambitious but controversial project aimed at expanding the frontiers of knowledge by studying how the tiniest particles behave when hurled against each other at extremely high speeds. A restive House voted last night to kill the most expensive scientific experiment ever planned, the Energy Department's giant particle accelerator in Texas known as the Superconducting Super Collider.
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