Panel Cuts R&D Funds For Energy, Environment

Abstract

As part of its effort to balance the federal budget, the House Subcommittee on Energy & the Environment has proposed cutting the current $7.9 billion spent on energy and environmental research to $6.2 billion in fiscal 1996. Subcommittee chairman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) says the proposed cuts reflect prioritization, a commitment to the best use of limited tax dollars, and a change in some fundamental assumptions upon which past spending programs were based. The subcommittee's bills authorize spending in the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Rohrabacher's proposed cuts take a decidedly ideological bend with the elimination of programs disliked by the Republican majority in Congress. These include some educational programs, a number of environmental research projects, and anything that hints of corporate welfare. The biggest reductions would be at DOE, where more than $1.36 billion in cuts are proposed. Rohrabache...