During the past two years science budgets generally have increased. Despite the need to get hold of the budget early in the administration and turn the red ink into black ink, it's still the case that the president and vice president kept science and technology a high priority. And we have a much better-balanced portfolio, recognizing that you can't just pick one area of science or engineering and decide that's where we need to put all our money. You never quite know where the major discoveries are going to be made. LANE I see us on a new trajectory, so this is not just about one year's budget.
Support needs to go up.
We need to at least track with overall economic growth, not year by year, but over time, because everything we do is increasingly technologically based. In fact, companies continue to emphasize the importance of the federal role because that is where the basic research gets done. You're not going to see the private sector shifting its support to basic science and engineering, for reasons we all understand. I was deeply troubled by the morale situation at the labs and there is still a great challenge there. We cannot expect to do the job we need to do in the laboratories, and that of course is stockpile stewardship, without truly outstanding people.