Appropriations: Part 2

The entire House is poised to vote on DOE funding this week. At this point, both House and Senate appropriators have passed energy and water spending bills out of their respective committees. Now, those bills must be approved by majority vote in their chambers of origin so that members from the House and Senate can begin to reconcile differences between the two bills, creating one final bill. Follow us on twitter to get the latest news on how the House votes.

 

Department of Energy

	FY 2017	FY 2018	President’s Budget Request FY 2019	AGU Request FY 2019	House Appropriations FY 2019	Senate Appropriations FY 2019
Overall	$30,786.01	34,520.05	$30,533.00	—	$35,494.25	$34,990.02
Office of Science	$5,392.00	$6,259.90	$5,413.00	$6,600.00	$6,600.00	$6,650.00
ARPA-E	$306.00	$353.31	$0.00	$375.00	$325.00	$375.00

*Proposed and enacted funding levels in millions

 

Thumbs up

• Most programs within the Office of Science saw flat funding or increases. Both the House and Senate increased the overall funding levels for DOE.
• The House bill specifically addresses concerns that the Administration will slow down funding by directing the DOE to “disburse funds appropriated for ARPA-E on eligible projects within a reasonable time period, consistent with past practices.” The Senate bill contains similar language rejecting the cuts and prohibits the agency from using any of the funds to terminate the agency.
• The Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) is a priority for the Administration. Both chambers concurred with the Administration’s proposal by increasing funding for the program. The House bill proposes over $666 million, an increase of over $23 million compared to the President’s budget request (PBR), and the Senate bill would allocate $980 million.

Thumbs down

• While the House rejected the elimination of ARPA-E, their bill would decrease funding for the program by 8% from FY 2018 omnibus levels. However, the Senate bill would increase funding to $375 million.
• House appropriators cut the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) line office by over 10%, a proposal not reflected in the Senate bill.