"You probably will see people who would havepursued a career in science, not believe they willget the proper funding, and leave the field,"Borchelt said. "This will hurt health care, hurtthe environment and cripple energy research."
However, the republicans maintain that basicresearch will not be touched and that the cuts arenecessary in order to reduce scientificbureaucracy and federal aid to corporations.
"Basic science is a priority in this budget,"says Melissa Sabatine, a spokesperson for theHouse Committee on Science. "We are attempting torestore integrity in science...we have grown awayfrom basic research by subsidizing largecorporations."
The Republicans also maintain that the NationalScience Foundation's budget would increaseslightly under their budget blueprint. TheNational science Foundation supports thousands ofuniversity researchers across the country.
However, even the Foundation realizes thatresearch subsidies to university scientists willdecrease under the Republican plan.
"Given the way the budget process is going, Idon't think you are going to see the level ofscientific money that will flow into universityscience that we have seen in the past," said asource at the Foundation.
And so the Clinton Administration andMassachusetts Democrats are preparing to mountintense lobbying efforts against the cuts.
"It is unbelievably short-sighted to cut outresearch and development in our nation's future,"said Rep. Kennedy. "The key to the nation'sproductivity has always come from our inventors,many of whom have been incubated at universities."
"We are committed to maintaining science andtechnology [funding], but we are in a battle,"said Krebs, a Clinton appointee.
Harvard Prepares to Fight
Harvard is gearing up for an intense lobbyingeffort in order to show its opposition to proposedcuts in financial aid and civilian scienceresearch.
Rudenstine's most recent trip to Washington,D.C. was in April in order to voice his concernabout the Republican proposals at the semiannualmeeting of the Association of American UniversityPresidents.
In Washington, Rudenstine met with U.S. Sen.Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), the chair of the SenateCommerce, Science and Transportation Committee,and with several members of the national media inorder to make the case for continued federalsupport of scientific research.
"The money saved, in the long term, inprevention, is so much greater than the researchcosts," Rudenstine said. "Research is a very goodinvestment in terms of cost-effectiveness."
However, Rowe acknowledged that Harvard's taskwill be difficult because of the widespreadsentiment across the country in favor of abalanced budget.
"[Preserving federal aid] will be a challengefor all sectors, and so universities cannot expectto be immune from political reality," Rowe said.
Rowe added that the higher education fundingcuts will become reality unless Harvard continuesto mobilize an intense campaign against the GOP'sbudget blueprint.
"We must redouble the efforts of our alumni,our faculty and our staff in order to make as gooda pitch as possible that [Harvard] is critical tothe success of America in the 21st century," Rowesaid.