Update - 26 June 2008:
HAC and HEWD FY2009 Markup available on the Los Alamos Study Group website. Click here to download a copy.I still do not have anything that includes yesterday's amendments. I'll post a link as soon as it is available. Thanks Greg Mello!
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This morning at 10:00 AM the House Appropriations Committee markup of the energy and water appropriations bill will be webcast live. The webcast can be viewed here. I will also post a link to the text of the bill as soon as I have it.
I'm surprised nobody has noticed the reduction in LDRD authorization, from 6% down to 4%.
ReplyDeleteLDRD is currently at 8%. It's taken directly off the top of all incoming project funds that arrive at LANL.
ReplyDeleteIf, indeed, it is going to 4%, then LDRD funding at LANL would be cut in half. Since I don't work on LDRD but, instead, help pay for it with the project funding I secure, I'm all for seeing it drop. Your mileage may vary.
Correction. LDRD is currently limited, by law, to 6% of the Lab's total expenditures. In addition, LDRD is required, by law, to pay into G&A like all other programs.
ReplyDeleteTo accomplish both these goals, LDRD funding is collected at 8% against programmatic work. Of this amount, about a quarter goes straight back into G&A.
Check last year's appropriations. The legislated number is still 6%.
And p.s., LDRD isn't "taken directly off the top of all incoming project funds."
ReplyDeleteRather, LDRD funds are collected when the project funds are spent. Same for org support and G&A.
For this reason, it's self-defeating for direct-funded workers at LANL to be conservative in their spending. If direct funds aren't spent quickly enough to generate the right revenues for G&A and org support activities, the rates can simply be raised to compensate. There have been intense discussions along these lines over the past couple months of FY08.
Oops, I lied. The House and Senate both called it 8% last year. (Figured I better slap myself before everyone else did!)
ReplyDelete5:35, where did you see that?
ReplyDeletepage 42 of the full-up bill (third file on the LASG webpage). can't tell if that provision stayed in through the final committee vote.
ReplyDelete"If direct funds aren't spent quickly enough to generate the right revenues for G&A and org support activities, the rates can simply be raised to compensate." (1:07 PM)
ReplyDeleteSo everyone who works hard to help bring in direct funding to LANL should now burn up this money as quickly as possible to help out with cash flow problems in support and management, right?
This is insane!
Well, at least we won't have to wait around for LANS to finish killing science, if Congress takes care of it for them.
ReplyDelete