Southwestern suburbs on Saturday will begin an offensive in support of Argonne National Laboratory, which is threatened with budget cuts that could reduce its staff by a third.
The research facility, near Lemont, will be forced to lay off 1,335 scientists and support personnel by Oct. 1 unless the cuts, proposed by the Reagan administration, can be reversed, U.S. Rep. Harris Fawell (R., Ill.)
said Friday.
Fawell, who disclosed the planned cuts last week, said that despite a week of hearings by the House Science and Technology Committee ”we have no answers as to why this is happening.”
However, he suggested that the elevation of James Vaughn to acting assistant secretary for the Department of Energy may be directly linked to the cuts. Vaughn is from the department`s naval reactor program, which stands to gain $72.1 million in the proposed budget.
Just as there has been no explanation for the $46 million cut in Argonne`s budget, to $151 million from $197 million, there has been no explanation for the increase to the naval reactor budget, said Fawell, a member of the Science Committee.
Saturday`s program, sponsored by the Consortium of Communities for Argonne, a coalition of 17 suburbs, ”is the beginning of an educational process about Argonne`s value,” said Ders Anderson, Orland Park village planner.
”We`re going to do what we can to protect Argonne,” he said, noting that a dozen members of the legislature will attend the session, which is designed to acquaint municipal and state officials with the laboratory and its work.
”The crisis in funding is what pulled everybody together,” he said.
In 1984, Argonne was forced to lay off nearly 1,300 people, most of them in support areas, because of budget cuts.
