Senate and House appropriations bills increase funding for the Department of Energy

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May 24, 2018

For fiscal year (FY) 2019, the Department of Energy (DOE) is poised to receive a significant increase in funding as both the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations rejected the administration’s proposed cut of $4 billion. Following a record increase of funding for DOE in FY 2018, the House Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019 (H.R. 5895) would increase DOE funding by $925 million for a total budget of $35.5 billion, while the Senate’s version of the FY 2019 energy and water appropriations bill (S. 2975) would provide a slightly lower total for DOE at $35.0 billion.

Both bills would increase funding for the DOE’s Office of Science, with a Senate mark of $6.60 billion and a House mark of $6.65 billion. In the Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences would receive an increase of $103 million in the Senate bill and $39 million in the House bill. The House bill would provide flat funding for Biological and Environmental Research (BER) and for Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists, while the Senate bill would provide modest increases for both of those programs. Although the administration proposed eliminating the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, for the second year in a row, the FY 2019 appropriations bills would sustain the program with the Senate increasing funding from $353 million to $375 million and the House decreasing funding to $325 million.

In regard to DOE’s energy programs, the House bill provides an increase of $58 million Fossil Energy Research and Development and reduces Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy funding by $244 million; the Senate bill would provide flat funding for each program. Both the House and Senate bills would also provide flat funding for the Energy Information Administration in FY 2019.

Sources: Library of Congress; U.S. Department of Energy; U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Appropriations; U.S. Senate, Committee on Appropriations.