Washington — Seven university presidents gathered on Capitol Hill today to lament that federal spending in 2008 would result in layoffs of university researchers in the physical sciences.

The presidents are pushing for $300-million in supplemental appropriations to make up for the lack of funds that were supposed to have been provided to the Department of Energy under the America Competes Act in 2008. That law, enacted last summer, called for a doubling of funds over the next seven years for physical-sciences research supported by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. Instead, the Energy Department received a minimal increase for 2008.

In addition to this request, the presidents asked for another $200-million for NSF.

Participants in the effort were the presidents of Duke, New Mexico State, and Pennsylvania State Universities and the Universities of Alabama at Birmingham, Chicago, Maryland at College Park, and Minnesota-Twin Cities. All of them have stakes in the federal financing of national laboratories run by the Energy Department. Many university scientists conduct their research there and depend on the support personnel working at those facilities.

“There are thousands of scientists who will lose their jobs because of the failure to pass these bills,” said Robert H. Bruininks, president of the University of Minnesota.

Their flagship case in the argument for additional support was the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, whose funds were cut in the 2008 federal budget by $94-million. The Energy Department, the agency supporting the lab, projects that 200 layoffs will be made there within the next year.

Each of the universities involved in the gathering was a member of either the Association of American Universities or the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. —Hurley Goodall

Correction: This article has been corrected to refer to federal spending in 2008. It originally referred incorrectly to spending in 2009.