The Multibillion-Dollar Threat to Research Universities

By Michael A. McRobbie. With each day, the so-called fiscal cliff looms larger as Congress and President Obama work to come to agreement on a federal-deficit compromise, which so far has proven elusive. Absent such an agreement by year's end, far-reaching spending cuts will be triggered as result of the Budget Control Act of 2011, through a mechanism called sequestration.
These reductions in federal spending, expected to total more than $1-trillion over the next nine years, would reduce the country's budget deficit—but would almost certainly come at a perilously high cost to the short-term stability and long-term vitality of the U.S. economy. Read more...