Federal money for the FRIB project is in jeopardy and local lawmakers are speaking up about it.
For years, Michigan State University has been working to bring the FRIB project to East Lansing.
It's a project expected to bring in hundreds of jobs and add billions of dollars to the state's economy over the next 10 years, but funding for the project has been in question.
The FRIB project is a facility for rare isotope beams. Tuesday, the Michigan senate's energy and technology committee heard from MSU and economic experts on how important it really is, in the hopes of making their voices heard back in Washington.
Funding for the project was nearly slashed in half in the president's budget proposal.
Originally, the project was supposed to get $53 million in funding from the federal government and now they're looking at about $22 million.
The committee passed a resolution Tuesday to call on congress to restore full funding for the project. In fact, one local lawmaker is pretty fired up over the way the federal government is budgeting for some projects overseas.
"To send a strong resolution to the federal government... Don't spend money in France... on research in France. It needs to be spent here in Michigan. We're talking about a billion dollars in Michigan's economy over the next decade we don't want that spent in France, we want it spent here," said Senator Rick Jones.
"It's crucial to have support at every level and I think while in and of itself one motion or one voice isn't enough…collectively it moves the ball and we have to hope this helps the process move forward," said Mark Burnham, MSU, VP of Government Affairs.
This resolution will now move to the senate floor for a vote. The project is expected to be complete by 2020, but the university says it's hard to say whether or not that will happen if they don't get the funding they need.
Courtesy of Michigan State University
