Many breathed a sigh of relief in mid-October when the federal shutdown finally came to a close after 16 days.
However, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman this week warned if Congress does not reach a compromise on federal spending, the university’s research operations will continue to remain in peril. According to the Ann Arbor News, millions of U-M’s research dollars were slashed from the budget in the first round of sequestration cuts in March, and the looming second round in January would create an even larger deficit.
Because more than 60 percent of U-M’s research is funded by the federal government, Coleman said without an agreement on federal spending, lost funding could impact “an entire generation of scientists” and their research.
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