ARPA-E Act of 2018

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5906) to amend the America COMPETES Act to establish Department of Energy policy for Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 5906, the bill now under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5906, the ARPA-E Act of 2018. This legislation requires the Department to refocus ARPA-E towards developing transformative science and technology solutions to address energy, environment, economic, and national security issues.

ARPA-E was created to ensure that the U.S. energy sector maintained a competitiveness in developing emerging energy technologies. The program was established to help develop high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that were too early stage to attract private sector investment.

ARPA-E was designed to bring this finite R&D funding for a limited time, with the intention to make quick, notable impact on the development of new energy technologies.

In order to accomplish this goal, ARPA-E was given a unique management structure, with flexibility to start and stop research projects that are no longer achieving individual goals, expedited hiring and firing authority to make sure that ARPA-E staff could adequately select and support projects, and the tools to identify market challenges that could affect the advancement in project technologies.

However, we have all heard of the concerns with ARPA-E. The first is the worry that this is just one more of the same from DOE. With the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program office funded at over $2.3 billion, it is easy to see why some would ask if we need another clean energy program.

Second, we have all heard of concerns over the years that ARPA-E wasn't meeting its intended goal--to fund the kind of technologies that are so innovative they would never attract private sector investment-- but was instead provided funding to big companies with

access to market capital, or funding research that was already under way in other Federal agencies or in the private sector.

The Science, Space and Technology Committee on which I serve as vice chairman particularly explored these concerns under the Obama administration. I believe there were valid concerns that must be addressed for the program to continue.

ARPA-E is a program that can have tremendous impact on the development of new energy technologies, but we can't have another agency playing favorites or handing out grants that distort our energy markets.

The bill we will consider today will address these concerns and enable ARPA-E to apply its innovative approach to a more appropriate set of technology challenges within the DOE mission, as the Trump administration sees it.

It does not--I repeat, this bill does not--authorize new spending or expand the size of the program. H.R. 5906 will refocus the mission of ARPA-E to mirror the full DOE mission and empower the Agency to promote science and technology-driven solutions.

My bill will allow the Agency to solve big challenges, like nuclear waste management and cleanup and improving the reliability, resiliency, and security of the electric grid.

The ARPA-E Act also provides important steps to prevent the duplication of research across DEO and to require applicants to indicate they have attempted to find private sector financing for a particular technology.

This is a good-government reform that is vital to ensuring that ARPA- E can't be abused for crony capitalism purposes in the future. We can't afford to spend limited taxpayer dollars competing with the private sector.

H.R. 5906 will align ARPA-E's innovative approach with the right mission goals and management. It will build on the basic science and early-stage research of the Department and help fast-track new technologies that will grow our economy.

I want to thank Chairman Lamar Smith and Ranking Member Johnson for cosponsoring this important legislation and for their leadership in advocating the reformed Agency functions within the Department of Energy's missions and goals. I am grateful for the opportunity to work alongside the other members of the committee to craft a bipartisan bill that will improve--yes, improve--a DOE research program but that still allows Congress the opportunity to reduce funding for the program as appropriate.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith), the chairman of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, reforming the mission and the goals of ARPA-E will transform the Agency to do what the DOE does best: develop innovative technology solutions to complex science, energy, and national security challenges.

I again want to thank my nine colleagues on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee who cosponsored H.R. 5906, including Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Johnson. I want to thank the new leadership staff at ARPA-E and the Department of Energy, who provided technical comments and policy recommendations as we developed this legislation.

I urge the adoption of this bipartisan, good-government legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma, the vice chairman of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (Mr. Lucas), for yielding me time on his bill.

The energy bill we are considering is H.R. 5906, the ARPA-E Act of 2018. It establishes clear DOE policy in a new direction and new requirements for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, called ARPA-E, program.

This legislation updates the mission of ARPA-E to focus on developing technological solutions to energy, economic, environmental, and national security challenges. This includes allowing ARPA-E to develop technologies to address the management, cleanup, and disposal of nuclear waste and to enhance the security and resilience of the electric grid.

H.R. 5906 also maximizes the Department's resources. It requires ARPA-E to coordinate with other DOE programs, avoid duplication, and ensures that ARPA-E grants go to innovative technologies that would not otherwise be funded by the private sector.

The bill reforms ARPA-E but does not authorize any funding for ARPA- E. Instead, H.R. 5906 provides much-needed reform to the ARPA-E program. It also leaves the door open for Congress to readdress ARPA-E funding in the future and determine if the Agency is meeting its intended purpose.

Unfortunately, there have been some mischaracterizations of this legislation, so let the Record be clear: Supporting H.R. 5906 will not prevent Congress from cutting--as we did in the House-passed Energy and Water Appropriations bill earlier this month--or even eliminating funding to ARPA-E in the future. Instead, it allows us to enact reforms today that refocus ARPA-E on technology within the DOE mission.

In addition, one organization that opposes this legislation apparently didn't read the bill and confused it with another bill that reauthorizes ARPA-E.

Mr. Speaker, thanks go to Vice Chairman Lucas and Ranking Member Johnson for their work on this reform bill and for their support of advanced research around the country.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to mention one more thing, and it might be of interest to all Members, even those who are not on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee. After this bill passes, of the 27 bills that the Science, Space, and Technology Committee has brought to the House floor, 24 of the 27 have, in fact, been bipartisan pieces of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, today I am very pleased to support H.R. 5906, the ARPA-E Act of 2018.

Even though the agency is still relatively young, ARPA-E has already demonstrated incredible success in advancing high-risk, high-reward energy technology solutions that neither the public nor the private sector had been willing or able to support in the past. This was highlighted in a Congressionally mandated National Academies review of the agency released last year. Industry leaders like Norm Augustine and Bill Gates have repeatedly called for tripling this agency's budget given the unique role that it is now playing in our energy innovation pipeline.

ARPA-E's impressive track record includes over $2.6 billion in private sector follow-on funding for a group of 136 ARPA-E projects since the agency's founding in 2009. Equally notable, 71 projects have formed new companies and 109 projects have shown enough promise to result in partnerships with other government agencies for further development.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't refer my colleagues to DOE Secretary Perry's address to the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit in March, where he said, and I quote, ``ARPA-E is one of the reasons DOE has had and is having such a profound impact on American lives.'' I couldn't have said this better myself.

The ARPA-E Act of 2018 maintains the structure and nimbleness of this critical agency while also enabling it to help tackle one of the Department of Energy's most expensive, intransigent problems, which is managing and remediating the legacy waste sites from our nation's past production of nuclear weapons. The bill also includes language from the bipartisan ARPA-E Reauthorization Act that I introduced last year which would ensure that sensitive business information collected by the agency remains protected. This will enable even greater private sector engagement in future ARPA-E projects and programs.

I would like to thank Mr. Lucas and Chairman Smith for working with me to introduce this bill, and I hope that all Members will support this critical investment in our nation's clean energy future.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5906, the ARPA-E Act of 2018.

After years of successes and several independent assessments praising ARPA-E's work, this bill is a welcomed development. It preserves the mission and flexibility of the Agency while enabling it to consider funding projects or technologies that can address DOE's monumental and longstanding challenge of environmental cleanup at the legacy sites of the Manhattan Project.

It also includes language from a bipartisan ARPA-E Reauthorization Act that our committee's ranking member, Ms. Johnson, introduced last year, which would ensure that sensitive business information collected by the Agency remains protected. This will enable even greater private sector engagement in its programs.

The ARPA-E projects have attracted more than $2.6 billion in private sector follow-on funding. Mr. Speaker, 71 projects have formed new companies, and 109 have gone on to partner with other government agencies to further their research.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Lucas and Chairman Smith for embracing ARPA-E's innovative model and joining our Members in supporting its reauthorization. I support this bill and encourage my colleagues to do the same.

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

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