43 members of the U. S. fusion community signed and delivered a "Statement on the Fiscal Year 2001 Fusion Energy Science Budget" to the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development of the Committee on Appropriations of the U.S.House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. Ron Packard (R-CA), asking the Committee to fund fusion research at a level of $300 million.

In the statement, the group asked the Subcommittee to "fund the DOE/SC Office of Fusion Energy Sciences at $275M for FY2001, as authorized by the House Science Committee (last year), and that IFE related laser research be funded at $25M, to be allocated between DOE/DP Office of Inertial Confinement Fusion and the DOE/SC Office of Fusion Energy Sciences as deemed appropriate by the Subcommitee." The President requested $247M for the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences and did not request any IFE related laser funding (funded this year at $10M in DOE's Defense Programs).

The group said, "Such funding will allow the set of 5-year objectives established by the FESAC to be achieved in a timely fashion, without sacrificing the SEAB-recommended (Secretary of Energy Advisory Board) balance among elements in the program."

The Statement is attached as HTML.