The President's budget in fiscal year 2019 is not a good one for science or the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics, or LLE.
That's according to the lab's director, Michael Campbell.
The proposed budget would ramp down funding for the lab, and Campbell says that would negatively impact Rochester and the nation.
"Laser work would go away. Photonics, which is a major industry, would be impacted. All the science that we're doing to support the nation's security would go away. 350 jobs would be lost and their families impacted," he said.
Senator Charles Schumer says he is answering the call to protect and expand the Laser Lab.
He says he's calling on Congress for $75 million dollars in federal funding in the budget for the LLE, a new 5-year agreement with the Department of Energy so the lab can continue its work to keep the nation's nuclear stockpile safe and secure, and arrange a tour of the facility with the Administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration, Lisa Gordon-Haggerty.
"Lasers are so important in the public sector, they're so important in the private sector, they're so important in science," he said.
He says he will work hard to "vaporize" any efforts to cut or eliminate the Laser Lab, as the Administration has proposed.
Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, (D-Fairport), says she has also invited Lisa Gordon-Haggerty, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, to tour the UR Laser Lab as part of the effort to keep the lab funded.
Here's Schumer talking about this three part plan: