The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday advanced its $37.4 billion fiscal 2017 energy and water budget bill without making any changes to the proposed amount for Department of Energy fossil energy research and development. Following the panel’s voice vote, the bill goes to the full House for consideration.
Appropriators in the lower chamber last week set spending for this work at $645 million, slightly more than the Senate’s $632 million proposal and far above the $360 million requested by the Obama administration. The Department of Energy proposed to bolster that amount with $240 million in reallocated prior-year balances to bring the total to $600 million, but House appropriators did not care for the “budgetary gimmick.”
The House funding would include $442 million for coal carbon capture and storage work and advanced power systems programs.
The Senate Appropriations Committee last week sent its $37.5 billion energy and water bill to the floor. At press time, floor consideration of the bills had not been scheduled in either chamber.
