Astronomy in Hawaii under threat?

[TomK]

Assuming the bill passes into law, then yes, jobs will be lost. Although it won't happen immediately, agencies will reduce funding because they see no future scientific investment in the observatories, and everything switches to keeping the staff that has some idea of how to decommission an observatory - not that anyone does. Even if an observatory wanted to recruit, who wants to take a job at a place that is planning to be decommissioned?