Requests to fund university research facilities, also known as "academic pork," that have become a growing and controversial part of the congressional budget-making process have been trimmed in the 1989 appropriations for the Department of Energy. Only two such projects, totaling $16.6 million, appear in the bill passed May 17 by the House, in contrast to nine projects, worth $73.7 million, that the House approved last year. Loma Linda University’s Proton Beam Cancer Treatment Center ($11.1 million) and Drexel University’s Center for Automated Technologies ($5.5 million) are the lone survivors from last year’s litter, and no new projects are contained in the spending measure, the first of 13 appropriations bills scheduled to come before the House. Beyond simple belt-tightening, the upcoming change in the White House left lawmakers unwilling to go to bat for projects that could be cut next year.
here in the bill, the House provides only $100 ...
