Lawmakers plead for full funding of NIST budget
Key House members on science issues on Tuesday urged appropriators to fully fund the fiscal 2005 White House budget request for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and Michigan Republican Vernon Ehlers, chairman of the panel's Environment, Technology, and Standards Subcommittee, testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee.
"NIST has been faced with devastating cuts," Boehlert said, adding that this year's budget cuts would force layoffs of as many as 100 scientists.
"We need to reverse this trend now," he added. "So what I'm asking you -- begging you -- to do is approve the president's request of $422.8 million for NIST's intramural labs."
The amount would restore cuts made by Congress last year.
Ehlers said another effect of budget cuts would be to limit NIST's work on standards for voting technology.
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