Hultgren supports Fermilab future, but short-term uncertain

One month after saying he couldn’t fight for cuts to the federal budget and not be willing to accept some cuts Fermilab, Congressman Randy Hultgren said Wednesday he will fight to save one of the area’s largest employers from the budget ax.

Hultgren toured the lab Wednesday to get a feel for the facility’s contributions to both science and the local workforce. The lab brought in businessmen from local companies that exist mainly to provide manufacturing and services to Fermilab to demonstrate the possible impact of a Fermilab crippled by budget cuts.

“I definitely think they should fund this place,” said Tim Ring, operation manager of Pavac Energy Corp. in Batavia. “We need a lab like this in the United States. We would not be located here if Fermilab wasn’t here.”

Cuts proposed by Republicans would see Fermilab lose up to 20 percent of its budget and as many as 400 jobs.

“That’s not going to happen if I have anything to do with it,” Hultgren pledged. “My commitment to you all is I will do everything I can to spread the word to make sure funding stays here and in the long-term make funding grow.”

However, the freshman congressman wouldn’t say for sure there would no budget cuts for Fermilab in the short-term.

“It’s too early to tell,” Hultgren said. “We don’t want to see any cuts. The most important thing is, long-term, we want to see a vital Fermilab.

A month ago, Hultgren indicated a cut of maybe 5 percent of the lab’s $400 million budget might be more tolerable. In more recent weeks, Hultgren has been pressured by both Sen. Dick Durbin and Gov. Pat Quinn to hold the line on Fermilab’s funding to keep top scientists in Illinois. In contrast, Hultgren’s Republican colleague in the Congress, Peter Roskam, has described the budget cuts to Fermilab as part of a tough, but necessary, cutback on government spending.