Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to issue a legal decision on whether President Trump’s Dept. of Energy (DOE) violated key appropriations laws in shifting hundreds of millions of dollars provided for research and development of clean energy sources in the full-year continuing resolution (CR) President Trump signed into law in March and steering those funds to energy sources it favors.
Specifically, Kaptur and Murray requested that GAO look into whether DOE’s spending decisions in fiscal year 2025 violate the Purpose Statute, which dictates that appropriations only be used for the purposes for which the appropriations were provided unless otherwise provided for by law, and the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal agencies from spending funds in advance of or in excess of an appropriation made by Congress.
According to recent analysis and internal reporting, the Department of Energy’s spending decision will likely result in the layoffs of more than 3,000 national lab scientists and staff — and will prevent over 50 university awards, over 30 industry awards, over 20 non-profit awards and several local government awards from being issued.
In making the request, Congresswoman Kaptur and Senator Murray said in a statement:
“In shifting these funds, President Trump is not only defying the law — he is raising working families’ energy bills and undermining America’s energy independence. Shortchanging these energy sources of the future hands an advantage to our global rivals while jacking up Americans’ energy costs. This decision is hurting our national labs, starving our universities of resources to conduct cutting-edge research, and undercutting businesses, local governments, and communities across the country. We are asking GAO to look into whether this decision violates key appropriations laws, and we again call on the Department of Energy to restore the funding levels that were signed into law by President Trump himself.”
In fiscal year 2024, Congress provided $137 million for the Dept. of Energy to support wind energy initiatives and provided $318 million to support solar energy. The fiscal year 2025 full-year CR that House Republicans wrote and President Trump signed into law continued these fiscal year 2024 funding levels. But in a spend plan made public earlier this month, the Trump administration revealed it is steering hundreds of millions of dollars designated by Congress to support wind and solar energy to other, favored industries — jeopardizing critical progress and ceding ground on key energy solutions of the future — among other harmful cuts. Instead of funding wind energy initiatives at $137 million, the administration is funding them at $29.8 million (a 78% cut), and instead of funding solar initiatives at $318 million, it is funding them at $41.9 million (an 87% cut).
News item from the Office of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur