Prof. Sacha Kopp								20 December 2007
4408 Barrow Avenue
Austin, Texas  78751

The Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison 
United States Senate 
284 Russell Senate Office Building 
Washington, D.C. 20510-4302
FAX: 202-224-0776

Dear Senator Hutchison:

There is distressing news of the large budget cuts to many basic science programs, including programs 
in High Energy Physics and Fusion Sciences, in the Department of Energy Office of Science in the 
Omnibus Appropriations bill for FY08 that recently passed by the Senate and House of 
Representatives.  I know that there are the difficult constraints surrounding this year's budget 
deliberations.  In the haste of the omnibus bill, cuts imposed upon the DOE Office of Science and NSF 
will drastically impact individual programs in physical science research and education.  

Bipartisan initiatives in the Congress have recognized the importance of basic research, particularly in 
the physical sciences, and had incorporated increases for research funding at key agencies into their 
budgetary plans for FY08 as part of the Innovation Agenda or the American Competitiveness Initiative.  
The funding called for in these initiatives utilized the best available peer-reviewed plans for scientific 
programming, and called for support in a portfolio of programs ranging from applied sciences to 
fundamental research.  We are all familiar with the strong connection between basic research and 
economic growth, a connection that other countries have also accepted and are acting upon vigorously.

The impacts of these cuts are not just nationwide, they are local.  Basic and applied scientific research 
are at the heart of the Austin and broader Texas economy.  These dramatic cuts will have severe 
consequences for many research programs at the University of Texas and other universities in our state.  
The NSF and DOE Office of Science is responsible for over $200M and $30M, respectively, in direct 
grant funding to Texas universities.  Over 400 faculty and students in Texas perform their research in 
physics, chemistry, and engineering at national laboratories operated by the DOE.  We face the 
possibility of doing irreparable harm to our educational and scientific infrastructure.  

As one of your constituents, I am proud of your record in supporting basic scientific research.  I hope 
that you will work to restore funding for the basic research in the Department of Energy Office of 
Science to levels closer to the President's request or the original House and Senate budget markups.

Sincerely,


Sacha Kopp
Department of Physics
University of Texas at Austin