House Republicans Pass Energy and Water Funding Bill that Raises Energy Costs, Undermines Climate Readiness and Resilience

WASHINGTON — During today’s House Appropriations Committee markup of the 2024 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies funding bill, Democrats spoke out against harmful provisions that increase energy costs, fail to diversify energy production and storage, yield leadership of the global energy future to China, ignore the scientific consensus on climate change, and increase our dependence on foreign energy. House Democrats were united in their opposition, voting unanimously against the bill.

For 2024, the Energy and Water bill provides $55.2 billion, a decrease of $3.9 billion or 6.5 percent below 2023. Further, the bill’s domestic allocation is effectively 21.5 percent, $5.4 billion, below 2023 while its defense allocation is 3.5 percent, $1.1 billion, above 2023, creating a further disparity between domestic and defense programs. The legislation:

• Increases energy costs by cutting and rescinding the Department of Energy’s clean energy programs that lower American families’ energy bills.
• Jeopardizes energy security by enabling Russia to continue weaponizing energy to destabilize global markets.
• Hurts United States’ competitiveness by allowing competitors like China to monopolize markets for new energy technology.
• Fails to confront the climate crisis and create better-paying, clean energy jobs.

“The Department of Energy has a proven record of partnering to help drive down the costs of clean energy technologies, reducing every day energy costs to the benefit of Americans nationwide, creating good-paying jobs for the hardworking men and women of our country while uplifting families. This bill passed today along party lines includes numerous controversial poison pill policy riders that show Republicans are not interested in bills that can gain bipartisan support and become law,” Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water said. “I am disappointed that this bill passed out of committee today made deep cuts to efforts to deploy clean energy technologies that reduce burdensome energy costs on families and seniors, especially those struggling to make ends meet. These extreme budget cuts will stifle American innovation and impede these important initiatives, resulting in higher energy costs and increased dependence on foreign adversaries for energy supplies. Republicans can't have it both ways when it comes to energy independence — if they cut spending at home, it will only increase our dependence on foreign energy sources from abroad.”

Congresswoman Kaptur’s full remarks as prepared for delivery are here.

“The best path – the only path – that lowers energy costs, addresses climate change, reduces our dependence on fossil fuels, and ends our reliance on foreign energy is to diversify how we produce and store energy. When it comes to addressing climate and driving a robust energy sector, our answer to the question ‘how’ must be ‘everything under the sun.’ This is the direction the world is going, and if we do not lead on new energy technologies, our competitors like China will be happy to lead instead,” Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) said. “We must be innovative, creative, and aggressive in fighting for a clean energy future to make America resilient in the face of climate change. Sustainability, at its core, is a demand that we responsibly steward the planet and its natural resources for future generations. The majority fails this demand.”  

Congresswoman DeLauro’s full remarks as prepared for delivery are here.

Key provisions of the bill as passed by the full committee:

• Cuts the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy account by $466 million or 14% below 2023 ($1.8 billion or 38% below the President’s budget request).
• Includes $5.7 billion in untenable repeals from the Department of Energy’s Inflation Reduction Act programs, including:
  • $4.5 billion from the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program.
  • $1 billion from the Assistance for Latest and Zero Building Energy Code Adoption.
  • $200 million from the State-Based Home Energy Efficiency Contractor Training Grants.
• Relitigates the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) by repurposing:
  • $3.6 billion from the Department of Energy’s IIJA Civil Nuclear Credit Program that help preserve the existing U.S. reactor fleet and save thousands of high-paying jobs across the country; and
  • $84 million from the Corps of Engineers’ IIJA programs.
• Revokes $15 billion in loan authority from the Department of Energy’s Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program—an increasingly successful program that promotes climate-friendly innovation and American manufacturing.
• Intentionally shifts $576 million in domestic funding to defense programs by abandoning prior agreements on funding for certain environmental cleanup activities.

The bill includes partisan riders:

• Allows firearms on Corps of Engineers’ public lands.
• Blocks the January 2023 revised definition of ‘Waters of the United States’.
• Includes a new title of controversial California water provisions that mandates the use of environmentally harmful water management plans and advances controversial California dam proposals.
• Prohibits funding to stop the energy efficiency standard for electric grid distribution transformers.
• Prohibits funding related to Department of Energy’s Justice40 initiative.
• Prohibits funding related to critical race theory.
• Prohibits funding related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the Federal workforce.
• Prohibits funding related to advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities through the Federal Government.
• Allows for discrimination based on same-sex marriage.

The text of the bill, before the adoption of amendments in full committee, is here. The bill report, before the adoption of amendments in full Committee, is here. Information on Community Project Funding in the bill is here.

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