Political Quotes

“I was one of 416 Members of this body who voted back in May for a different and better energy and water appropriations bill. But then a funny thing happened on the way to the conference committee. Although the House- and Senate-passed bills both funded one of this Nation's most important analytical research projects, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, which is operated by the Department of Energy's world-class Brookhaven National Laboratory, which I am very proud to represent, somehow this breakthrough research was cut dramatically in conference. As a result, the RHIC, as it is known, could lay dormant, unused, for 47 weeks out of the year. Why is this project so important? It is designed to recreate conditions of the Big Bang from which the universe was born and life created. The Federal Government has already invested more than $1 billion, that is $1 billion, in the construction of this facility; and it simply makes no sense to let such an investment go unused. I do not know about my colleagues, but this is like buying a Porsche and letting it sit in your driveway because you will not buy the gas. I ask, is there a more important basic research project in progress anywhere else in the country? How did we justify disinvesting in this project, as well as BNL's research into translational neuroimaging and functional nanomaterials?…”