S.Amdt. 267

SA 267. Mr. LAUTENBERG submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 23, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Governments for fiscal year 2004 and including the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal year 2003 and for fiscal years 2005 through 2013; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 79, after line 22, add the following:

SEC. 308. FUSION ENERGY RESEARCH.

(a) Findings.--The Senate finds that--

(1) fusion energy is capable of producing clean, safe, and inexpensive energy;

(2) in January 2003, the President announced an International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Initiative to promote the advancement of fusion science;

(3) the contributions of American universities and laboratories to the Department of Energy's Fusion Energy Sciences Program are crucial to the success of the Nation's role in that initiative; and

(4) a letter from the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee to the Department of Energy referred to the Administration's 2004 budget cuts as “alarming” and “devastating” to the success of that program at Princeton University.

(b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that the funding levels in this resolution assume that funding for the Fusion Energy Sciences Program will be increased by $78,000,000, to the authorized level of $335,000,000.