FY2019 Appropriations for the Department of Energy

Overview

The President's fiscal year (FY) 2019 budget request and the addendumaddendum include $30.67 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE), approximately $500 million (2%) more than the FY2017 enacted appropriations of $30.1 billion, accounting for rescissions (see P.L. 115-31 and Division D Explanatory Statement). This request would increase the total budget for DOE,3.8 billion (11%) less than the FY2018 enacted level of $34.6 billion (see P.L. 115-141 and Title III of Division D, Explanatory Statement on page H2481). This request would increase overall funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and increase. The request would reduce funding for the OfficeOffices of Environmental Management (EM). The request would maintain funding for the Office of Science, while it would reduce funding for the Offices ofEM), Science, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Nuclear Energy (NE), and Fossil Energy ( (FE, including the Fossil EnergyFE Research and Development [R&D] program). It would also split the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) into two accounts—grid reliability (Electricity Delivery, OE) and cybersecurity (Cyber SecurityCybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency responseResponse, CESER)—and reduce total combined funding to these offices. It would eliminate funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), State Energy Program (SEP), Energy Policy and Systems Analysis, and programs within the Loan Program Office.

Figure 1. Department of Energy Budget Comparison

Source: FY2019 request, FY2018 current (under continuing resolution), and FY2017 DOE Enacted, from DOE, FY2019 Congressional Budget Request: Budget in Brief (February 2018). Notes: "Other" refers to programs and funding not within the specified categories. "Energy" refers to the Offices of EERE, NE, OE (and the newly proposed OE and CESER), and Fossil Energy (FE), which includes Fossil Energy R&D. "Science" refers to the Office of Science.

Proposed changes to the DOE budget are illustrated in Figure 1, which compares FY2017 enacted levels and FY2018 current and proposed appropriationsand FY2018 enacted levels to the FY2019 request. The FY2019 request for NNSA is $15.1 billion (a 173% increase over the FY2017FY2018 level of $12.914.7 billion). Among other increases, the budget request would provide $120 million to restart licensing activities for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and to initiate an interim nuclear waste storage program. The EM budget request of $6.6 billion is an increase of $182 million (3%) over FY2017 enacted.

Several offices would see funding decreases, including EM (7%), Science (14%), and the energy programs (52%). The request decreases funding broadly across energy programs—although FE would see nearly $35 million more in funding (5%) over FY2017. Other offices would see funding decreaseswith EERE seeing a decrease of more than $1.6 billion (70%) below FY2018. Within EERE, all programs would see decreases in funding, and funding for two programs would be eliminated: the Weatherization Assistance Program and the State Energy Program.

Other programs would also be eliminated. The request would eliminate funding for ARPA-E. Funding would also be eliminated under the request for the WAP and SEP.

billions of current dollars

Sources: FY2017 Enacted and FY2018 Enacted from P.L. 115-141 and Division D, Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2018, Explanatory Statement. FY2019 request from FY2019 Congressional Budget Request: Budget in Brief.

Notes: "Other" refers to programs and funding not within the specified categories. For FY2017 Enacted, "other" includes a Defense contribution line-item to the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) Fund of $563 million that was not included in FY2018 Enacted by Congress or the FY2019 President's Request. "Energy" refers to the Offices of EERE, NE, OE (and the newly proposed OE and CESER), and FE, which includes FE R&D.

Table 1 shows a summary of changes included in the FY2019 request compared to the FY2017 enacted levels and FY2018 appropriationsenacted levels.

The budget request proposes to eliminate funding for the Title XVII Loan Program and ATVM Loan Program. According to the request, the existing loan portfolio would continue to be managed, and unobligated balances and offsetting fees collected from borrowers would support the administrative functions of the programs. The budget request states its expectation that operations will wind a. The requested change in funding level refers to the FY2019 funding levels for the newly proposed offices (OE and CESER) when summed and compared to the FY2018 enacted level for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability.

Key Changes

The FY2019 request would reduce funding for energy programs by 52%, with the majority of the proposed reductions in EERE. The request would also split the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability into two offices: OE and CESER. The request would decrease funding levels to OE programs by more than $89 million (59%) from FY2017 enacted, and increase funding levels to CESER programs by more than $16 million (21%) over FY2017 enacted (comparison with FY2018 enacted not broken out).

The FY2019 budget request maintains funding levels request would reduce funding for the Office of Science at nearly $5.4 billion; however, the requestand would change funding levels for individual Science programs "to focus on its core mission of conducting cutting edge, early-stage research," although the request does not specify what this entails.." The request would increase funding compared to FY2017 enacted levels by $252 million (39%) for Advanced Scientific Computing Research. Biological and Environmental Research would see funding decrease by $112 million (18%). Other programs would also see reductions, includingOther programs would see reductions compared to FY2017 enacted levels, including Biological and Environmental Research ($112 million or 18%), Fusion Energy Sciences ($40 million decrease or 11%), and High Energy Physics ($55 million decrease or 7%).

For additional information on FY2018 appropriations for DOE, see CRS Report R44895, Energy and Water Development: FY2018 Appropriations, by [author name scrubbed] and [author name scrubbed].