12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions · Notable · Needs Congress
End DOE funding of commercial technology and deployment programs
Printed page 374 12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions
“End funding of programs for commercial technology and deployment. The next Administration should work with Congress to eliminate nonessential funding of commercial technology and deployment. These activities can be conducted by the private sector.”
What has happened
- Attempted
DOE terminated 223 awards worth more than $7.5 billion, following 24 terminations worth over $3 billion in May 2025, most of them demonstration and deployment awards. Still `attempted`: Congress funded every applied energy account in P.L. 119-74 — Electricity $235m, Grid Deployment $25m, Nuclear Energy $1.785bn, Fossil Energy $720m, EERE $3.1bn, ARPA-E $350m — so no program was ended.
- Attempted
The President's FY 2026 discretionary budget request proposed deep cuts to DOE's commercial technology and deployment programs, including the applied energy offices and the demonstration accounts. A budget request is a formal administration request (playbook 3b).
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Requires-Congress ask. Leveled with #947, the major-tier ask on the same page, which is attempted on the same facts: awards canceled and cuts requested, every applied office still funded.
The one commercial-deployment program Congress did reshape is the Title 17 loan program, restructured by P.L. 119-21 section 50403 into Energy Dominance Financing — a redirection, not an end (see #973, #975).
- Action
- eliminate
- Object
- DOE funding of commercial technology and deployment
- ID
- 949