Lewis-Burke Associates LLC – June 16, 2011
Despite the low likelihood that the House versions of the fiscal year (FY 2012) appropriations bills will be enacted into law, on June 15, the full House Appropriations Committee approved a $30.6 billion Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill. The bill was approved on a party line vote of 26 to 20. The full Committee made very few changes in the bill approved by the Subcommittee on June 2.
Reflecting House Republicans’ desire to reduce domestic discretionary spending, the Committee bill is fully $5.9 billion below President Obama’s request and $1 billion below the FY 2011 enacted level. For non-security Subcommittees, the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee was allocated the smallest overall reduction below the FY 2011 enacted level.
During his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) stated that the highest priorities for the bill were supporting the Department of Energy’s (DOE) defense activities and activities that directly support America’s competitiveness, including basic science research and water infrastructure. Within an overall spending level that is approximately the same as provided in FY 2005, these priorities were supported by proposing significant reductions in other programs within the bill. The Chairman acknowledged the difficult choices made in fashioning the bill, but indicated that in the balance this is a fair bill.
The most contentious debate during Committee consideration of the bill was over an amendment by Chairman Frelinghuysen to provide $1.0 billion in emergency funding for the Army Corps of Engineers to respond to immediate needs relating to flooding in the Midwest. Several members took issue with his offset of a commensurate reduction in high-speed rail funding that had been provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), but not yet obligated. An amendment to strike the offset was defeated, and the amendment was subsequently adopted.
The Committee also considered an amendment offered by Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) to restore nearly $80 million to sustain funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency- Energy (ARPA-E) at the FY 2011 level. Representative Schiff did not have an offset to the additional spending for ARPA-E, which would have been needed to keep the bill within its spending allocation, so the amendment was not adopted. The House bill includes $100 million for ARPA-E for FY 2012, a reduction of nearly $80 million (44 percent) below the current level, and $450 million (82 percent) below the President’s request. ARPA-E is charged with supporting high-risk, high-reward research and development leading to potentially game-changing new energy technologies.
Given the competition for funding within the bill, the DOE Office of Science, which funds basic research associated with agency missions, fared quite well. The House Committee approved $4.8 billion for the DOE Office of Science, a reduction of $42.7 million (0.9 percent) below the FY 2011 enacted funding level. The Committee recommendation for the DOE Office of Science is $616.1 million (11 percent) below the President’s request.
Detailed funding recommendations for the various programs within the Office of Science are displayed in the chart below. The House bill would provide continuation funding for the three existing Energy Innovation Hubs (Hubs) – the Fuels from Sunlight Hub ($24.3 million); the Energy Efficient Building Systems Design Hub ($24.3 million); and the Nuclear Energy Modeling and Simulation Hub ($24.3 million). As previously reported, the House Committee also approved funding for two new Hubs. Within the Office of Science, the President’s request of $24.3 million is approved to establish a new Batteries and Energy Storage Hub. The Committee also included $20 million in the Industrial Technologies program within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to fund a new Critical Materials Hub. The Committee did not approve the third new Hub requested by the President for Advanced Modeling Grid Research, but requested a report outlining these activities in both the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability and ARPA-E.
The House Committee concurred with the President’s request to continue support for the 46 existing Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs), but not to fund additional centers at this time.
The House Committee emphasized throughout the bill and within the Office of Science the need for better program management, including review and termination of underperforming projects. The Committee also signaled that initiatives that have been funded for five years should not necessarily be continued beyond the initial commitment of funding unless they are successfully meeting program requirements. The Committee uses the three Bioenergy Research Centers, the Energy Innovation Hubs, and the Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) as examples. The Committee pointed to the ARPA-E as a program structure in which projects are closely monitored and consideration is given to terminating programs that “fail to meet their challenging goals.”
The Basic Energy Sciences program was singled out for lack of transparency to the public and the Congress. The Committee directed the Department to create a “performance ranking” of all ongoing multi-year research projects within BES, including those at universities, national laboratories, Hubs, and EFRCs, and to terminate the lowest ranking projects in the amount of $25 million. The Committee would provide $1.69 billion for BES, an increase of $9.95 million (0.6 percent) above FY 2011 but $296.9 million (15 percent) below the President’s request.
For the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program, the House Committee recommendation of $547.1 million is $64.75 million (11 percent) below FY 2011 and $170.8 million (24 percent) below the request. The Committee supported funding for the three Bioenergy Research Centers charged with developing cellulosic biofuels. It also indicated that the Climate and Environmental Sciences program is not focused on areas directly associated to the Department’s core mandate on energy innovations. The Committee stated its expectation that such programs be assessed against core missions.
For the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, a total of $427.1 million would be provided, an increase of $5.1 million (1 percent) above FY 2011 and $38.5 million (8 percent) below the President’s request. The House Committee acknowledged the importance of developing an exascale computing platform as crucial to maintaining U.S. leadership in high performance computing and information technology. The Committee encouraged the Department to continue efforts to have the Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) collaborate and coordinate activities on exascale research. The Committee also directed the Department to provide a report outlining the plans for the exascale program, including a target date for an operational exascale platform, interim milestones to reach that goal, the estimated range of investment, and the details of the funding requested in the FY 2012 President’s budget.
The Committee would provide increases above the FY 2011 level for Fusion Energy Sciences (8 percent), High Energy Physics (0.2 percent), and Nuclear Physics (2 percent). The Committee provided up to $5 million to support the FY 2010 class of graduate fellows, but prohibits new fellowships and scholarships unless they were specified in the FY 2012 budget justification documents submitted to Congress.
The applied research programs of DOE relating to renewable energy are slated by the Committee for significant reductions below the FY 2011 enacted level and the President’s budget request. For the EERE programs, the House bill recommends $1.3 billion, a reduction of $491.0 million (27 percent) below the FY 2011 level, and nearly $1.9 billion (59 percent) below the President’s request. Subcommittee Chairman Frelinghuysen indicated that the Committee proposed these reductions where stimulus funding is still available, or where the private sector can be expected to invest in energy research.
Within these programs, the Committee provided no funding for Solar Demonstration Zone projects; prohibited new funding opportunities in the Geothermal Technologies program due to the mortgages on past awards; prohibited conventional hydropower projects under the Water Power program; prohibited funding under the Vehicle Technologies program for electric vehicle charging stations but requested a National Academies study on the role, if any, the federal government should play in this area; continued the current SuperTruck Program; did not fund the Race to the Green Grant program or the Manufacturing Energy Systems initiative; and funded at $10 million the Bright Tomorrow Lighting (“L”) Prize initiative for which the Department has solicited funding proposals, but not requested funding.
The Committee emphasized that the DOE defense-related programs of the NNSA are a priority; however, the major programs are funded well below the President’s budget request. Late last year, the Senate ratified the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), requiring new funding for implementation, which was partially provided in the final FY 2011 Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act.
In a move sure to raise objections from the White House, the House Committee rejected the Administration’s plan to suspend work on the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, providing $35 million to support activities at the site, of which $10 million is directed to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to continue their review of the application to license the site.