Reps. Obernolte, Foster introduce bipartisan Department of Energy accountability bill

Ranking Member Jay Obernolte (R-CA) and Chairman Bill Foster (D-IL) of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight have introduced H.R. 6933, the bipartisan Cost-Share Accountability Act of 2022, to boost the Department of Energy’s accountability to Congress and the public when awarding funding grants. The bill addresses key issues raised by Ranking Member Obernolte and Chairman Foster in a hearing on the department’s nuclear energy awards in October regarding the department’s decision-making process for waiving cost-sharing requirements.

“Cost-sharing requirements exist to protect the use of federal dollars and ensure American taxpayers get the best possible return on their investment,” said Rep. Obernolte. “While cost-sharing waivers can be useful for catalyzing investment in novel technologies, they must also be exercised appropriately and carefully. As Members of Congress, it is our responsibility to ensure that agencies are acting as good stewards of taxpayer dollars when carrying out these transactions.”

“For Congress to fulfill our oversight responsibilities, we must be able to access information on how our departments and agencies are operating. I look forward to working with the Department of Energy to make sure Congress understands how cost-sharing is implemented in support of the Department’s projects,” said Rep. Foster.

While the Energy Policy Act of 2005 establishes cost-sharing requirements for most research, development, demonstration and commercial application activities at the Department of Energy, 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 at least three times in the last several years. While these waivers can help enable 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. 6933 increases accountability over the Department of Energy’s on federally funded projects by requiring the department 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.