Under the budget request, OFES would receive $458M. Comparison with the current year (FY2013) is problematic since programs are currently facing "sequestration" of funds in the current year. The OFES budget for FY 2012 was $401M. Within the FY 2012 budget,the US contribution to ITER construction was $105M and the US domestic fusion program was $296M. In the FY2014 request, ITER funding would grow to $225M, while the domestic program would decline to $233M. The budget therefore projects a decline of $63M (21%) in the domestic program.

The biggest domestic casualties in this allocation would be the Alcator C-Mod program at MIT, which would decline from $28.5M in 2012 to zero in 2014; the High Energy Density Laboratory Physics program, which would decline from $24.7M in 2012 to $6.6M in 2014; International Research programs, which would decline from $17.4M in 2012 to $8.3M in 2014; and theory, which would decline from $24.3M in 2012 to $20.6 in 2014.

DOE has once more declined to provide a total cost estimate for the US contribution to ITER construction. They state that outyear funding would be held level at $225M per year in the future and that that will allow the US to meet its commitment to the ITER schedule. DOE acknowledges that the US contribution will exceed $2.2 billion. Through FY2012 the US had spent only $0.54 billion. The current ITER schedule plans for first plasma in 2020. How the US can meet its commitment to the ITER schedule by spending $225M per year remains obscure.