It is with great regret that we inform you that budgetary pressures have
forced us to change the “firm” portion of Accelerator Operations
schedule that was released on June 10. The updated accelerator schedule
and scheduling memo have been posted at
http://www.jlab.org/div_dept/physics_division/experiments/schedule.html.
It is firm through December 2008 and tentative for January through June
2009.
It has been clear for while that at the start of the new fiscal year we
will not get the 29% increase in total JLab funding that was contained
in the President’s budget request despite the fact that this budget
level was approved by the Senate in its “mark-up” of the DOE funding
bill, and was exceeded by the House “mark-up” of that bill. Consequently
the Lab has prepared a number of operating scenarios, each corresponding
to a different estimate of total funding for FY09 but all starting with
the assumption of a continuing resolution (implying funding at FY08
levels) for the first six months of FY09. Recent guidance by the DOE
urges conservative planning for FY09, i.e. warns against initial
overspending in the hope of later budgetary redress. This situation has
been exacerbated by a 40 % increase in the power rate the Lab is
charged, which became effective July 1, 2008. For the remainder of FY 08
alone this has increased the power bill for the entire Lab by over $600
k. In FY09 the 24 week running scenario commensurate with one likely
budget outcome the power bill increase would be $ 2.5 M over the FY08
cost, and the increase would be higher still for the full 32 week
scenario that we envisage if the FY09 budget is fully restored.
To minimize the impact of this increase, the portion of the running that
is planned for the six month continuing resolution period (i.e., through
3/31/09) has been shifted toward the end of that period in an effort to
move running (and the related power bill) to as late in the period as
possible. This will provide us with maximum flexibility in dealing with
the budget constraints during a continuing resolution. The changes to
the schedule include: delaying the start of physics running in October
by two weeks; running over Thanksgiving for improved efficiency (rather
than shutting down, as we have often done, for the holiday); and
extending the December holiday shutdown. The same net physics running
can be completed by the end of March 2009 by shortening the March-April
down to the minimum compatible with the installation of the last of the
upgraded cryomodules necessary to achieve 6.0 GeV by April.
The schedule as posted still includes the first three quarters of the
full 32 week program we would like to run in FY2009. The funding
required to realize this program is a final budget that is close to the
President’s budget proposal for FY2009. As you know, the final budget
received in FY2008 forced us to cut running by almost a third (down to
24 weeks of operations). If (as expected) there is an extended
continuing resolution in FY2009 and if the final budget for the year is
roughly constant effort relative to FY2008, we will only be able to run
24 weeks in FY2009.