Senate Votes to Fund Super Collider; Key Test Ahead

The Senate voted Thursday to allocate the full $640 million requested by President Clinton for the world’s largest atom smasher, the Texas-based superconducting super collider, turning back efforts to kill the controversial project.

But the 57-42 margin of victory was smaller than a vote supporting the collider last year, perhaps reflecting stronger budget-cutting sentiments in Congress and foreshadowing even more difficult battles to come.

The fate of the project now will have to be worked out by a House-Senate conference committee, since the House voted overwhelmingly in June to kill it. Senate supporters predicted that the House will relent--as it did last year--and agree to funding.

The super collider, a 54-mile-long circular tunnel under construction near Waxahatchie, Tex., is designed to allow scientists to observe the high-speed collision of atomic particles to help resolve basic questions about the origins of the universe and nature of matter.

“I believe we can win” in conference committee, said Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.), a key supporter who has a reputation as a careful vote-counter and a canny legislative strategist.

But leading House opponents of the atom smasher said they would continue their fight to shut off funding, first through the upcoming Senate-House conference and, if necessary, by waging another battle on the House floor.

“Hell, no, we haven’t given up yet,” said Rep. Jim Slattery (D-Kan.), a leader of the House battle to scuttle the project. “We still have 65% of the House on our side.” His Republican ally, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert of New York, argued that support for the super collider was eroding in both chambers. He predicted that this year’s outcome will not be a replay of 1992.

The odds may favor the super collider’s backers, who are expected to dominate the conference committees. Anticipating that, 120 super collider opponents in the House have asked Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) to make sure that their views are represented on the panel.

In debate before the Senate vote, advocates of the collider stressed the value of continuing scientific research into the nature of matter, while critics contended that the project was poorly managed and a waste of taxpayers’ money at a time of mounting federal deficits.

Johnston, floor manager of the bill in the Senate and a strong proponent of the project described it as “on the very cutting edge of knowledge. . . . We dare not turn our backs on this.”

But Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.), who failed in his attempt to knock out the funds, said that the price tag has tripled in six years and predicted that the project ultimately could cost $38 billion, with no assurance that the benefits will match the outlays.

Johnston disputed the figure, saying that 1991 estimates put the cost at $8.25 billion, assuming a completion date of 2002.

The 15-vote margin that preserved the funding was about half that of 1992--a reflection, in part, of the stronger sentiment for spending cuts this year. The House on June 24 voted, 280 to 150, to terminate the project, a far larger margin than its 232-181 vote last year.

In the Senate, the issue cut across party lines. California’s Democratic senators split, with Dianne Feinstein supporting the collider and Barbara Boxer opposing it.

“If we wish to remain a great power, we must support the basic research from which breakthrough results will come,” Feinstein told the Senate. She added that California firms already have received $240 million worth of contracts stemming from the project. Ultimately, the state is expected to reap about $1 billion from the project.

Thirty-one Republicans and 26 Democrats voted to preserve super collider funding, while 29 Democrats and 13 Republicans opposed the project on a showdown roll call.