"Bill Foster is an Obama Democrat." Is that a fair thing to say? B.F.: Yeah, I think that's fair to say. On most issues I find myself fairly well aligned with the president. There are all sorts of policy details on which we differ. In broad terms, I think it's difficult to characterize me as being left or right of what he's trying to accomplish. Q: One of the real tensions for a place like Fermilab, the United States' sole particle physics lab, is that the type of research that scientists do there is not really seen as a priority within this administration, which has strongly emphasized research more directly connected to clean energy technology. Do you break with the administration and say, "No, no I'm going to advocate for Fermilab?" Is this an area of tension between you and the administration? B.F.: Well, there are two things. One of your duties as a representative of an area is to advocate for the facilities there. The other thing is to guide the facilities on a path toward success, in the field of political realities. Both of those are very important. It does no good to encourage labs in and around your district to go down paths that are destined for failure. So teamwork is essential. Q: But Fermilab needs a major new project. And they're working very hard to get the $789 million Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment in the next decade. Given that there is this gigantic budget mess going on,