KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Monday that he will fight to keep jobs and boost funding for research facilities like Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The secretary’s comments appeared at odds with President Donald Trump’s budget priorities released in March that outlined $900 million in cuts to the department’s Office of Science, which oversees 10 national labs including Oak Ridge.
Perry, a former Texas governor, likened the budget proposal to an opening offer that he expects to see significantly changed in Congress.
“I will remind you this is not my first rodeo when it comes to budgeting,” he said. “I understand you’ve got to start from somewhere, and this is the budget that we started from.”
Energy Secretary Rick Perry speaks at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility in Knoxville, Tenn., Monday, May 22, 2017. Perry said his goal is to protect jobs and funding for his agency and its research facilities. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)
Perry toured the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. Perry dug up earth with an excavator made up of components made by the facility’s 3-D printer, and took laps of the parking lot in a 3-D printed vehicle.