Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would increase funding for the Advanced Research Project Agency for Energy, otherwise known as ARPA-E. The bill provides $280 million for ARPA-E, which is $45 million less than the President's request. It also represents less than half of the difference between the committee mark and the President's request, with the increase offset by a reduction in the Department administrative account.

At the outset, I want to thank the chairman and ranking member of our subcommittee for the level of funding provided to ARPA-E this year, which is a substantial improvement over last year's House mark which cut the program by 80 percent. However, I think that rather than providing flat funding, we should be stepping up our commitment to a potentially game-changing research program, and that is what my amendment does.

This is a very modest investment for an agency whose work is helping to reshape our economy. While the amendment would leave us still short of where the funding should be and where it is in the President's budget, passing it would send a strong signal that there is bipartisan support for this kind of research. Last year, I offered a similar amendment to restore funding to ARPA-E in this fiscal year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, which was adopted by a bipartisan majority in the House.

Started in 2009, ARPA-E is a revolutionary program that advances high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private sector investment. ARPA-E projects have the potential to radically improve U.S. economic security, national security, and environmental well-being. ARPA-E empowers America's energy researchers with funding, technical assistance, and market readiness.

ARPA-E is modeled after the highly successful Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which has produced groundbreaking inventions for the Department of Defense and the Nation, perhaps most notably the Internet itself. A key element of both agencies is that managers are limited to fixed terms so that new blood continuously revitalizes the research portfolio.

As we cut spending to return the budget to balance, we must not weaken those programs that are vital to our economic future and national security, and ARPA-E is just such an agency. Even if we can't make the investment that the President has called for in his budget, let's be sure that we don't hinder an agency that is pointing the way to a more energy-secure future.

Energy is a national security issue. It is an economic imperative. It is a health concern, and it is an environmental necessity. Investing wisely in this type of research going on at ARPA-E is exactly the direction we should be going as a nation. We want to lead the energy revolution. We don't want to see this advantage go to China or anywhere else in the world.

If we are serious about staying in the forefront of the energy revolution, we must continue to fully invest in the kind of cutting-edge work that ARPA-E represents. By providing the funding I am recommending today, we will send a clear signal of the seriousness of our intent to remain world leaders in energy.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. SCHIFF. I thank the chairman for his comments, and I appreciate his opposition. I appreciate his reluctance even more than his opposition.

I know the chairman has a large fan company in his district he is very proud of, and justifiably so. Those big fans need energy, Mr. Chairman. They need a good efficient energy, and ARPA-E is just the kind of agency to deliver that.

ARPA-E, as our own mark and committee report notes, supports research that is aimed at rapidly developing energy technology whose development and commercialization is still too risky to attract sufficient private sector investment but is capable of significantly changing the energy sector to address our critical economic and energy security challenges. That is an excellent description of ARPA-E.

By providing robust funding, we can help this vital Agency continue working on a wide range of programs that will benefit the United States, both in the short-term and for many years to come. These programs include improvements in petroleum refining processes, heating and cooling technologies with exceptionally high energy efficiency, and transportation fuel alternatives to greatly reduce our dependence on imported oil.

So my colleague need not be so reluctant. He can join in support of this amendment. Again, it would basically split the difference between where the bill is now and what the President has asked for. It is a little less than the difference between the two.

But our competitiveness in this global economy, where we have to compete with labor that costs a fraction of what American workers cost, depends on research and development. We don't want to get in a race to the bottom with the developing world on what we pay our workers, so that means that we have to remain the most productive in the world. This is an agency that helps us do it, and I urge support for the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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