Fermi could see some new funds

A funding package passed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday had some good news for Fermilab, but not enough to stop layoffs at the Batavia laboratory.

The $10 billion in domestic add-ons to Iraq war spending legislation included $100 million for the Office of Science for research and staff at Fermilab and other facilities, according to Sen. Dick Durbin's office.

It still has to be passed by the House -- or agreed to in a compromise plan -- and signed by the president.

The president has said he would veto the extra spending, but the Senate passed the measure with a veto-proof 75-22 vote.

Even if Fermi gets that money, it wouldn't be enough to stop 140 layoffs -- about 7.5 percent of the lab's work force -- in the coming weeks, said Fermilab spokeswoman Judy Jackson on Thursday.

The money would be used to end the practice of unpaid furloughs for all workers of one week every two months, which was instituted in December, she said.

It would also be used to start work again on the NOvA experiment to look for electron neutrinos, and research and development on a future accelerator for the lab.

"That would mean all the difference for us," Jackson said of the funding plan. "It is a first step, a major step for us."

Officials have been rallying for a federal supplemental funding package since December, when the lab got word its funding would be drastically cut.

Work was stopped on several projects and the furloughs were instituted.

"They really are biting into the lab's productivity," Jackson said. "We are really feeling them."