LI businesses cheer Senate vote on BNL
President Obama's 2014 budget includes $165 million for Brookhaven National Laboratory's heavy ion collider, which could keep the facility running for another year. Credit: Newsday, 2005 / John Paraskevas
Nine Long Island business organizations yesterday applauded a U.S. Senate vote earlier this week blocking a measure that would have severely slashed funding for Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton.
In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the organizations urged that funding for BNL be maintained at 2010 levels for fiscal 2011.
It was the Republican-controlled House that wanted to cut BNL spending.
The organizations said in their letter, which they made public Friday, that if the cuts had been allowed to go through, "the results would've been devastating." The lab, the organizations said, would have lost 930 employees, a third of its workforce. Additionally, they said, the National Synchrotron Light Source -- one of the lab's major projects -- "would have been shuttered after the U.S. government had invested approximately $2.5 billion." They also said the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider would also have been closed, after a government investment of $3.5 billion.
BNL officials earlier this month disclosed that House legislation would result in sharp cuts.
The Long Island organizations noted that BNL is a major contributor to the local economy, supporting some 5,190 jobs on the Island and an additional 5,400 positions in New York State.
The House and the Democratic-controlled Senate are locked in a battle over budget cuts.
The House cuts that would have impacted the lab were contained in a continuing resolution. The latest resolution keeps the government funded for another two weeks.
Sarra Sounds Off, Ep. 15: LI's top basketball players On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Newsday's Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay take a look top boys and girls basketball players on Long Island.
