David Cay Johnston: “As my good friend from New Mexico, the chairman of the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee and many other Members…”

“As my good friend from New Mexico, the chairman of the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee and many other Members are aware, the subcommittee continues to support a strong Fusion Energy Sciences Program. As noted in the report language accompanying the Senate bill, the committee is pleased by the efforts of the fusion community over the past year to restructure the fusion program. However, despite our best attempts to keep the budget essentially level this year, we were forced to accept a cut in this important program because of the constraints imposed by the overall low level of funding for the nondefense programs in this bill. Mr. President, I want to get some additional clarification from my good friend from New Mexico, the chairman of the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, about the statement of managers language accompanying the Fusion Energy Sciences Program. The language calls for the operation and safe shutdown of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor in fiscal year 1997. Is it the chairman's understanding that this language can in any way be interpreted to imply a particular funding level or length or operation for the TFTR in fiscal year 1997?”