Every federal budget raises anew the question of whether a large increase sought for any one program will come at the expense of other programs. For scientists, the issue is best symbolized this year by the supercollider, for which the administration wants $300 million more on the road to completing the $8.25 billion facility in 1999.
Administration officials say they have adhered to a promise to scientists that the 54-mile-long proton-proton accelerator will not drain funds from other research projects, both within the Energy Department and throughout the government. But many analysts express disbelief at such claims, pointing to the discrepancy between the sharp rise in SSC funding and the essentially flat level of spending within high-energy physics in recent years.
"It must come out of other budgets," says the American Physical Society's Robert Park. "How could it not?"
Even Secretary of Energy James Watkins, speaking at a press briefing ...
