Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions · Notable

Require loan applicants to comply with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act

Not started

384 12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions

“Establish clear mandatory qualifications requiring applicants to comply with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and to certify that they are not financed with any other local, state, or federal taxpayer-backed loan, loan guarantee, or bond (such as a state “green bank”).”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    Neither qualification exists, and the negative now reaches the document that would carry them. DOE's Title 17 Energy Financing Program Guidance of 13 May 2026 sets out the eligibility requirements, project categories and applicant qualifications for every program the Office of Energy Dominance Financing runs, and the words "Uyghur" and "forced labor" appear nowhere in its 60 pages; nor does any requirement that an applicant certify it carries no other local, state or federal taxpayer-backed loan, guarantee or bond. The operative text of DOE's Energy Dominance Financing interim final rule of 28 October 2025, the only loan-program rule in the window, likewise contains no reference to the Act or to forced labor.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • Negative search: the rule text at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-10-28/html/2025-19675.htm was searched for “Uyghur” and “forced labor” with zero hits; the Federal Register records we keep and search hold no other DOE loan rule in the window; among the 119th Congress bills we keep and search, none sets DOE loan qualifications.
  • Reviewed 2026-09-06. The May 2026 Title 17 program guidance was opened and read (2,839 lines of text): “Uyghur” 0 hits, “forced labor” 0 hits. This is the second place such a qualification could live, and the first that a Federal Register negative does not reach, because some instruments never enter the Federal Register. The negative now covers DOE rulemaking and DOE’s published program guidance; it does not reach the loan agreements themselves, which are not published.
  • The guidance is attached to the not started event, as dated action on the ask’s own subject that satisfies neither limb: the instrument that governs applicant qualifications exists, is dated and is in the window, and it does not carry either qualification the Quote names.
  • Same document, different asks: #974 (due diligence and transparency, not started) and #975 (eligible-project limit, partial).
Action
restrict
Object
DOE loan program applicant qualifications
ID
976