Obernolte DOE accountability bill passes U.S. House of Representatives

The bipartisan Cost-Share Accountability Act introduced by U.S. Congressmen Jay Obernolte (R-CA) and Bill Foster (D-IL) passed the U.S. House of Representatives today with unanimous support. The bill would enhance the Department of Energy’s accountability to Congress and the public when awarding grant funding and waiving cost-sharing requirements.

“When companies apply for grant funding through the Department of Energy, the grant typically includes a cost-sharing requirement that protects taxpayer investment by ensuring that other parties take on some of the risk in successfully completing the project,” said Rep. Obernolte. “The DOE has the ability to waive this requirement in some circumstances, but doing so can limit competition for grant funding. As Members of Congress, it is our responsibility to conduct oversight of these waivers, to ensure transparency when they are employed, and to protect the use of taxpayer dollars.”

WATCH REP. OBERNOLTE’S FLOOR REMARKS HERE

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 establishes cost-sharing requirements for most research, development, demonstration, and commercial application activities at the Department of Energy.  However, on at least three occasions in the last several years, the Office of Nuclear Energy has made use of its authority under the law to award large sole-source grants while also waiving the cost-sharing requirements for those grants. While these waivers can help catalyze faster investment in critical novel technologies, they also remove funding from the competitive award process and deny other prospective participants the opportunity to submit their own competing proposals.

H.R. 342, theCost-Share Accountability Act, increases accountability over the Department of Energy’s use of cost-share waivers on federally funded projects by requiring the DOE to make public and submit to Congress quarterly reports on the use of its authority to modify or bypass the statutory cost-sharing requirement. This change will ensure better transparency and competitiveness in the Department’s awards process and improve stewardship of taxpayer dollars.