06/10/2025 at 10:00AM
Subcommittee hearing.
Witness:
- Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy
The Trump administration proposed a budget of $46.32 billion for DOE for fiscal year (FY) 2026. The budget requests a $3.49 billion reduction, or 7.01 percent, below the FY 2025 enacted level.
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Grid Deployment are cut 75 percent; Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve cut 50 percent.
Eliminated programs include:
- Office of Technology Commercialization
- Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program
- Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program
| Department of Energy | ||
|---|---|---|
| Program Name | $ Change from 2025 Enacted (in millions) | Brief Description of Program and Recommended Reduction or Increase |
| Cuts, Reductions, and Consolidations | ||
| IIJA Cancellation | -15,247 | The Budget cancels over $15 billion in funds committed to build renewable energy, removing carbon dioxide from the air, and other technologies. The Budget also ends programs for electric vehicle and battery makers and cancels the Carbon Dioxide Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. |
| Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) | -2,572 | The Budget reorients EERE programs to early-stage research and development programming, eliminating funding for Justice40. This proposal would support technologies that promote fossil-fuel and nuclear power and bioenergy. |
| Office of Science | -1,148 | The Budget reduces funding for climate change and renewable energy research. The Budget maintains priority areas such as high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, quantum information science, fusion, and critical minerals. |
| Environmental Management (EM) | -389 | The EM program performs activities at 14 active cleanup sites and operates a geologic disposal facility (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico). The EM topline is being reduced by $389 million, which reflects a reduction of about $178 million for the transfer of responsibility from the EM program to the National Nuclear Security Administration for the Savannah River site in South Carolina, where plutonium pit production capabilities would be developed. The Budget maintains the Hanford site in Washington at the 2025 enacted level but reduces funding for various cleanup activities at other sites. |
| Advanced Research Project Agency‒ Energy (ARPA-E) | -260 | The Budget reduces funding for ARPA-E, limiting support to research advancing fossil-fuel technologies and other technologies. Pollution-reducing technologies are not supported. |
| Office of Nuclear Energy | -408 | The Budget reduces funding for research on nuclear energy. Funding priorities include innovative concepts for nuclear reactors, researching advanced nuclear fuels, and maintaining the capabilities of the Idaho National Laboratory. |
| Office of Fossil Energy | -270 | The Budget restores the name and function of the Office of Fossil Energy to its original purpose, which is funding for the research of technologies that could produce an abundance of domestic fossil energy and critical minerals. |
| DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY 2026 Appropriation Summary ($K) | |||||
| FY 2024 Enacted | FY 2025 Enacted | FY 2026 Request | FY 2026 Request vs FY 2025 Enacted | ||
| $ | % | ||||
| Department of Energy Budget by Appropriation | |||||
| Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy1 | 3,460,000 | 3,460,000 | 888,000 | -2,572,000 | -74% |
| Electricity | 280,000 | 280,000 | 193,000 | -87,000 | -31% |
| Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency | |||||
| Response | 200,000 | 200,000 | 150,000 | -50,000 | -25% |
| Strategic Petroleum Reserve | 213,390 | 213,390 | 206,325 | -7,065 | -3% |
| Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves | 13,010 | 13,010 | 13,000 | -10 | 0% |
| SPR Petroleum Account | 100 | 100 | 100 | 0 | 0% |
| Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve | 7,150 | 7,150 | 3,575 | -3,575 | -50% |
| Total, Petroleum Reserve Accounts | 233,650 | 233,650 | 223,000 | -10,650 | -5% |
| Nuclear Energy (270)2 | 1,525,000 | 1,525,000 | 1,210,000 | -315,000 | -21% |
| Fossil Energy | 865,000 | 865,000 | 595,000 | -270,000 | -31% |
| Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning (UED&D) | 855,000 | 855,000 | 814,380 | -40,620 | -5% |
| Energy Information Administration | 135,000 | 135,000 | 135,000 | 0 | 0% |
| Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup | 342,000 | 342,000 | 322,371 | -19,629 | -6% |
| Science | 8,240,000 | 8,240,000 | 7,092,000 | -1,148,000 | -14% |
| Office of Technology Commercialization3 | 20,000 | 20,000 | — | -20,000 | -100% |
| Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations | 50,000 | 50,000 | — | -50,000 | -100% |
| Grid Deployment4 | 60,000 | 60,000 | 15,000 | -45,000 | -75% |
| Office of Manufacturing & Energy Supply Chains5 | — | — | 15,000 | +15,000 | N/A |
| Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy | 460,000 | 460,000 | 200,000 | -260,000 | -57% |
| Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund | 12,040 | 12,040 | 12,040 | 0 | 0% |
| Departmental Administration | 286,500 | 286,500 | 174,926 | -111,574 | -39% |
| Indian Energy Policy and Programs | 70,000 | 70,000 | 50,000 | -20,000 | -29% |
| Inspector General | 86,000 | 86,000 | 90,000 | +4,000 | +5% |
| Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program | 58,719 | (121,000) | 682,588 | +803,588 | -664% |
| Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program | 13,000 | 13,000 | 9,500 | -3,500 | -27% |
| Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program | 6,300 | 6,300 | (12,000) | -18,300 | -290% |
| Total, Credit Programs | 78,019 | -101,700 | 680,088 | +781,788 | -769% |
| Energy Projects | 83,724 | — | — | 0 | N/A |
| Critical and Emerging Technologies | — | — | 2,000 | +2,000 | N/A |
| Total, Energy Programs | 17,341,933 | 17,078,490 | 12,861,805 | -4,216,685 | -25% |
| Weapons Activities6 | 19,108,000 | 19,293,000 | 24,856,400 | +5,563,400 | +29% |
| Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation | 2,581,000 | 2,396,000 | 2,284,600 | -111,400 | -5% |
| Naval Reactors | 1,946,000 | 1,946,000 | 2,346,000 | +400,000 | +21% |
| Federal Salaries and Expenses | 500,000 | 500,000 | 555,000 | +55,000 | +11% |
| Total, National Nuclear Security Administration | 24,135,000 | 24,135,000 | 30,042,000 | +5,907,000 | +24% |
| Defense Environmental Cleanup | 7,285,000 | 7,285,000 | 6,956,000 | -329,000 | -5% |
| Other Defense Activities | 1,080,000 | 1,107,000 | 1,182,000 | +75,000 | +7% |
| Defense Uranium Enrichment D&D | 285,000 | 285,000 | 278,000 | -7,000 | -2% |
| Total, Environmental and Other Defense Activities | 8,650,000 | 8,677,000 | 8,416,000 | -261,000 | -3% |
| Nuclear Energy (050) | 160,000 | 160,000 | 160,000 | 0 | 0% |
| Total, Atomic Energy Defense Activities | 32,945,000 | 32,972,000 | 38,618,000 | +5,646,000 | +17% |
| Southeastern Power Administration | — | — | — | 0 | N/A |
| Southwestern Power Administration | 11,440 | 11,440 | 10,400 | -1,040 | -9% |
| Western Area Power Administration | 99,872 | 99,872 | 63,372 | -36,500 | -37% |
| Falcon and Amistad Operating & Maintenance Fund | 228 | 228 | 228 | 0 | 0% |
| Total, Power Marketing Administrations | 111,540 | 111,540 | 74,000 | -37,540 | -34% |
| Total, Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies | 50,398,473 | 50,162,030 | 51,553,805 | +1,391,775 | +3% |
| Excess Fees and Recoveries, FERC | -9,000 | -9,000 | -9,000 | 0 | 0% |
| Title XVII Loan Guar. Prog Section 1703 Negative | |||||
| Credit Subsidy Receipt | -6,493 | -61,106 | -65,805 | -4,699 | +8% |
| UED&D Fund Offset | -285,000 | -285,000 | -278,000 | +7,000 | -2% |
| Sale of Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve | -98,000 | — | — | 0 | N/A |
| Sale of Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve | — | — | -100,000 | -100,000 | N/A |
| Total Funding by Appropriation | 49,999,980 | 49,806,924 | 51,101,000 | +1,294,076 | +3% |
| Total Discretionary Funding | 49,999,980 | 49,806,924 | 46,319,000 | -3,487,924 | -7% |
| DOE Budget Function | 49,999,980 | 49,806,924 | 51,101,000 | +1,294,076 | +3% |
| NNSA Defense (050) Total | 24,135,000 | 24,135,000 | 30,042,000 | +5,907,000 | +24% |
| Non-NNSA Defense (050) Total | 8,810,000 | 8,837,000 | 8,576,000 | -261,000 | -3% |
| Defense (050) | 32,945,000 | 32,972,000 | 38,628,000 | +5,646,000 | +17% |
| Science (250) | 8,240,000 | 8,240,000 | 7,092,000 | -1,148,000 | -14% |
| Energy (270) | 8,814,980 | 8,594,924 | 5,391,000 | -3,203,924 | -37% |
| Non-Defense (Non-050) | 17,054,980 | 16,834,924 | 12,483,000 | -4,351,924 | -26% |
1 The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy funding levels for FY 2024 Enacted and FY 2025 Enacted included the Offices of State and Community Energy Programs, Federal Energy Management Program, and Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains.
2 Naval Reactors and Nuclear Energy (050) amounts do not reflect the mandated transfer of $92.8 million in FY 2024 and FY 2025 from Naval Reactors to the Office of Nuclear Energy for operation of the Advanced Test Reactor
3 The Office of Technology Commercialization, formerly known as the Office of Technology Transitions, is funded in the Departmental Administration appropriation in FY 2026 at $10 million.
4 Funding for the Grid Deployment account in FY 2026 will support OE programs and projects, with close coordination with CESER, that increase generation and transmission capacity and strengthen grid security.
5 Funding for the MESC account in FY 2026 will support EERE and FE activities to address supply chain vulnerability areas, to include critical minerals and materials. The Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains was funded at $19 million in the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy appropriation in both FY 2024 Enacted and FY 2025 Enacted.
6 FY 2026 Requested Funding includes $4.782 billion in mandatory Reconciliation resources for NNSA Weapons Activities.