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ARPA-E and the FY2016 Budget Request
Heather B. Gonzalez
Specialist in Science and Technology Policy
May 18, 2015
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
R43986
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ARPA-E and the FY2016 Budget Request
Summary
The Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, or ARPA-E, was established to “overcome the
long-term and high-risk technological barriers in the development of energy technologies” (P.L.
110-69, §5012). Patterned after the widely lauded Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA)—which played a key role in the development of critical technologies such as satellite
navigation and the Internet—ARPA-E has supported more than 400 energy technology research
projects since Congress first funded it in FY2009.
This budget and appropriations tracking report describes selected major items from the
Administration’s FY2016 budget request for ARPA-E and tracks legislative action on FY2016
appropriations to the agency. It also provides selected historical funding data. This report has
been updated to include House-passed amounts for FY2016. It will be updated to include FY2016
Senate-passed amounts and final enacted FY2016 appropriations.
Overall, the Obama Administration has requested $325 million for ARPA-E in FY2016, a $45
million (16%) increase over the FY2015 enacted level of $280 million. The House-passed Energy
and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016 (H.R. 2028) would
provide $280 million to the energy agency in FY2016. With the exception of FY2013—when
ARPA-E was subject to reductions as a result of certain rescissions and under the process
commonly known as sequestration—Congress has funded ARPA-E at about $280 million since
FY2012.
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Contents
ARPA-E: An Overview .................................................................................................................... 1
FY2016 Budget Request and Appropriations .................................................................................. 3
Historical Funding ........................................................................................................................... 3
Policy Issues and Observations ........................................................................................................ 4
Tables
Table 1. ARPA-E Funding Levels Under Selected, Proposed Reauthorization Acts ....................... 2
Table 2. ARPA-E Appropriations, FY2014-FY2016 ....................................................................... 3
Table 3. ARPA-E Authorizations, Budget Requests, and Appropriations, FY2008-FY2016 .......... 4
Contacts
Author Contact Information............................................................................................................. 5
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ARPA-E and the FY2016 Budget Request
he Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, or ARPA-E, was established to
“overcome the long-term and high-risk technological barriers in the development of
Tenergy technologies” (P.L. 110-69, §5012). This budget and appropriations tracking report
summarizes the Administration’s FY2016 budget request for ARPA-E and tracks legislative
action on FY2016 appropriations. It also provides selected (proposed) appropriations
authorizations under consideration in the 114th Congress, historical funding data, and an overview
of selected policy debates about the agency.
Table 1 summarizes authorized funding levels for ARPA-E under certain proposed, but not yet
enacted, reauthorization measures under consideration in the 114th Congress. Table 2 shows
FY2014 current funding, FY2015 enacted funding, the FY2016 request, and FY2016 House-
passed funding levels for ARPA-E. This table will be updated to include FY2016 Senate-passed
amounts, as well as final enacted appropriations, when those numbers become available. For a
longer perspective, Table 3 provides ARPA-E authorizations, budget requests, and appropriations
from FY2008 through the FY2016 request.
Appropriations to ARPA-E, which is part of the Department of Energy (DOE), are typically
included in annual energy and water development and related agencies appropriations acts. (The
Congressional Research Service tracks these acts each fiscal year. See the “Appropriations Status
Table” on CRS.gov, at http://www.crs.gov/Pages/AppropriationsStatusTable.aspx.) ARPA-E’s
budget justifications are published on the agency’s website at http://arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=arpa-e-
site-page/arpa-e-budget.
ARPA-E: An Overview
Patterned after the widely lauded Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)—
which played a key role in the development of critical technologies such as satellite navigation
and the Internet—ARPA-E was established by the America COMPETES Act (P.L. 110-69) in
FY2008. The agency received its first appropriations in FY2009: $15 million in regular
appropriations and $400 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA; P.L. 111-
5) funding. The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-358) amended and
reauthorized ARPA-E’s statutory authority, which is codified primarily at 42 U.S.C. 16538, and
authorized appropriations to the agency through FY2013.
Although ARPA-E is relatively young by federal science agency standards, the agency asserts that
its awardees already have produced significant scientific and technological gains. ARPA-E states
that its awardees have
developed a 1 megawatt silicon carbide transistor the size of a fingernail; engineered
microbes that use hydrogen and carbon dioxide to make liquid transportation fuel; [and]
pioneered a near-isothermal compressed air energy storage system.1
At the February 2015 annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, the agency announced that
1 ARPA-E, “ARPA-E History,” ARPA-E website, accessed April 7, 2015, at http://arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=arpa-e-site-
page/arpa-e-history.
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[a]t least 30 ARPA-E project teams have formed new companies to advance their
technologies and more than 37 ARPA-E projects have partnered with other government
agencies for further development. Additionally, 34 ARPA-E projects have attracted more
than $850 million in private-sector follow-on funding after ARPA-E’s investment of
approximately $135 million and several technologies have already been incorporated into
products that are being sold in the market. To date, ARPA-E has invested approximately
$1.1 billion across more than 400 projects through 23 focused programs and two open
funding solicitations (OPEN 2009 and OPEN 2012).2
News reports indicate that ARPA-E also has cancelled 21 projects3—an expected outcome for this
type of agency, which is designed to support high-risk, high-reward research that sometimes
produces unanticipated (positive and negative) results. Monitoring progress and recommending
termination of research projects are express statutory responsibilities of ARPA-E program
directors.4
Appropriations Authorizations
Appropriations authorizations to ARPA-E, which were last enacted in the America COMPETES
Reauthorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-358), expired in FY2013. Members of the 114th Congress
have introduced measures to reauthorize provisions from P.L. 111-358, including provisions that
authorize appropriations to ARPA-E. An analysis of these bills may be found in CRS Report
R43880, The America COMPETES Acts: An Overview, by Heather B. Gonzalez. Table 1
summarizes funding levels for ARPA-E under these various reauthorization measures.
Table 1. ARPA-E Funding Levels Under Selected, Proposed Reauthorization Acts
Dollars in Millions, Rounded
Proposed ARPA-E Appropriations Authorizations
Bill
Bill Title
Number Disposition FY2016 FY2017 FY2018 FY2019 FY2020
America COMPETES
reported
Reauthorization Act
H.R. 1806 from House
140.0 140.0
─
─
─
of 2015
Committee
America Competes
referred to
Reauthorization Act
H.R. 1898 House
325.0 341.3 358.3 376.2 395.0
of 2015
Committee
Source: H.R. 1806, as reported by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology; and H.R. 1898, as
introduced.
2 ARPA-E, “ARPA-E Announces Start-up Companies, Strategic Partnerships and Private Sector Funding at 2015
Innovation Summit,” press release, February 9, 2015, at http://arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=news-item/arpa-e-announces-start-
companies-strategic-partnerships-and-private-sector-funding.
3 Jeff Tollefson, “Radical Energy Ideas Secure Private Funds,” Nature, vol. 518 (February 19, 2015), pp. 286-287.
4 42 U.S.C. 16538(g)(2)(B).
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FY2016 Budget Request and Appropriations
The Obama Administration has requested $325 million for ARPA-E in FY2016, a $45 million
(16%) increase over the FY2015 enacted level of $280 million. In keeping with its historical
practice, the agency expects to use its FY2016 appropriations to support between 7 and 10
focused funding opportunity announcements (FOAs). Each FY2016 FOA would provide
approximately $10 million to $40 million in funding for programs that focus on specific technical
barriers in a specific energy area.5
ARPA-E groups its projects into two broad categories: transportation systems and stationary
power systems. Project types can vary widely within these categories. In general, ARPA-E
anticipates that the focus in FY2016 will be on transportation fuels and feedstocks; energy
materials and processes; dispatchable energy; and sensors, information, and integration. The
annual ARPA-E budget justification also contains a line item for program direction, which
includes salaries and benefits, travel, support services, and related expenses.
As passed by the House on May 1, 2015, the Energy and Water Development and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016 (H.R. 2028) would provide $280 million to ARPA-E in
FY2016. This amount is $45 million (-14%) less than the FY2016 request. Congress has funded
ARPA-E at approximately $280 million since FY2012—with the exception of FY2013, when the
process commonly known as sequestration (as well as enacted rescissions) reduced the agency’s
funding level to about $250 million. (See Table 3.)
Table 2. ARPA-E Appropriations, FY2014-FY2016
(budget authority in $ millions, rounded)
FY2014
FY2015
FY2016
FY2016
FY2016
FY2016
Current
Enacted
Request
House
Senate
Final
Transportation
100.8 126.0 118.3
Systems
─
Stationary Power
151.2 126.0 177.5
Systems
─
Program
Direction 28.0 28.0 29.3 28.0
ARPA-E
(Total) 280.0 280.0 325.0 280.0
Source: FY2016 ARPA-E congressional budget justification, available at http://arpa-e.energy.gov/sites/default/
files/ARPA-E%202016%20Budget.pdf; and H.R. 2028, as passed by the House. As with past practice, Congress
does not typically specify funding for items marked with a “─.”
Historical Funding
Table 3 shows ARPA-E authorizations of appropriations, budget requests, and appropriations
since the agency was first authorized in 2008.
5 In some years, ARPA-E releases “focused” FOAs, which target specific, defined technical needs. This appears to be
the strategy planned for FY2016. In other years, the agency releases “open” FOAs, which “identify high-potential
projects that address the full range of energy-related technologies.” FY2015 was an open FOA year. More information
is available at http://arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=programs/apply-for-funding.
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Table 3. ARPA-E Authorizations, Budget Requests, and Appropriations,
FY2008-FY2016
(budget authority in $ millions, rounded)
Fiscal Year
Authorization
Budget Request
Appropriation
2008 300.0
—
—
2009 such
sums —
15.0a
2010 such
sums 0.0 0.0
2011 300.0
300.0
179.6
2012 306.0
550.0
275.0
2013 312.0
350.0
250.6
2014
—
379.0 280.0
2015
—
325.0 280.0
2016
—
325.0
—
Source: FY2009 to FY2016 annual ARPA-E and DOE congressional budget justifications; available at http://arpa-
e.energy.gov/?q=arpa-e-site-page/arpa-e-budget, and http://energy.gov/budget-performance.
a. ARPA-E received $15.0 million in regular appropriations in FY2009 and $400 million in one-time
appropriations through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, P.L. 111-5).
Policy Issues and Observations
ARPA-E is a comparatively new addition to the federal research and development (R&D)
portfolio. Given the nature of R&D, which can take decades to produce widely recognized or
transformative results, it may be many years before ARPA-E’s ultimate impact is fully
understood.
Some early concerns about the agency focused on perceived differences between ARPA-E and the
DARPA model. These include differences in the markets for defense and energy-related products.
DARPA, for example, has a built-in customer (the U.S. military), which ARPA-E does not have.
Further, some analysts have argued that industrial relationships and characteristics of the energy
sector (including powerful incumbent firms and the wide array of energy-dependent products)
have the potential to stop the dissemination of disruptive innovations. It is not clear whether these
early concerns have become actual challenges for ARPA-E, or whether ARPA-E has been able to
adjust and respond to its unique position. It is also possible that factors perceived (rightly or
wrongly) as key to the success of DARPA may not be as important to the success of ARPA-E.
Other early congressional concerns focused on whether ARPA-E would compete with, duplicate,
or otherwise undermine other DOE research units, such as the Office of Science, and on whether
the agency would focus too closely on late-stage technology development and commercialization
activities that some policymakers perceive as best left to the private sector.6 The Government
6 Chairman Paul Brown, in U.S. Congress, House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Subcommittee on
Investigations and Oversight, “Opening Statement,” A Review of the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy,
(continued...)
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Accountability Office investigated such concerns in 2012 and found that ARPA-E had taken steps
to avoid duplication with other DOE offices and that “most ARPA-E projects could not have been
funded solely by the private sector.”7
Author Contact Information
Heather B. Gonzalez
Specialist in Science and Technology Policy
hgonzalez@crs.loc.gov, 7-1895
(...continued)
hearings, 112th Cong., 2nd sess., January 24, 2012.
7 Testimony of U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Natural Resources and Environment Director Frank
Rusco, in U.S. Congress, House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Subcommittee on Investigations and
Oversight, “Department of Energy: Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Could Improve Its Collection of
Information from Applicants (GAO-12-407T),” A Review of the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy,
hearings, 112th Cong., 2nd sess., January 24, 2012, available at http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-407T.
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