"I'm not in Physics for the money. I'm in it for the sex." -- Veazy

It always comes down to money when you want to do research. You need money to buy detectors, and build structures. Then you need money to go to conferences afterwards to show your results. And money to live on is usually a good thing too.
In the past couple of years I've heard about some labs around the US having to shut down for periods of time due to budgets, but I thought we were immune to that. On Monday, the media released the budgets passed by congress last month. The NSF took a hit. Which sucks for us, because we're funded by the NSF. So we're taking a hit.
What does this mean for me as a graduate student? Not much really. I've already ran my thesis experiement, so even if the lab has to stop running beam for a little while, it won't affect me. I'm still going to analyze my data and graduate on time. Some of my friends may be delayed a month or two, but what's a couple of months?
Last week we had a lab wide meeting to discuss the budget cuts and what it meant for our lab. (For official word -- please see official press. This is just my reaction to that meeting.) I was sitting in the atrium near some of the staff that I've gotten to know well over the last couple of years. When there was talk of laying off a handful of people I saw a lot of heads drop.
I looked around the room, and there wasn't one person I wanted to see leave the lab. It's like a big family here, complete with a grumpy uncle or two. When you walk down the halls, people say hi and ask how things are. When you need help with something, they find time to help you. When tragedy strikes someone personally, we let them know we care. To think that our family will probably get smaller over the summer is sad.