Congress Should Appropriate CHIPS and Science Act Authorizations to Further Energize American Innovation

The Biden administration and Congress last year enacted landmark legislation—the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act—to bolster American competitiveness in key innovation industries. While these bills could position the United States on a path to a clean energy technology transition, more remains to be done—namely, appropriating the billions of dollars of clean energy innovation investments that the CHIPS and Science Act authorized. Congress should make good on its promise and appropriate these authorizations to further energize innovation in energy and other critical technologies.

The CHIPS and Science Act authorized over $50 billion for early-stage basic energy and applied energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) across federal agencies. According to ITIF’s energy innovation tracker, this includes $24 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, $11 billion for its applied energy offices and ARPA-E, and $800 million for its Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (table 1). The CHIPS and Science Act also authorized hundreds of millions of dollars for new DOE programs focusing on regional and national clean energy innovation, as well as national laboratory infrastructure restoration and modernization.

Table 1: DOE’s authorized clean energy innovation programs

Although no funds have been appropriated, authorizing legislation like the CHIPS and Science Act serves a few purposes. Congress provides long-term direction to DOE through authorizing legislation, which defines the technology areas that DOE can work on (e.g., CHIPS and Science Act Sec. 10771), setting its mission and goals, enabling funding for department activities, and determining its operating structures. It also defines the strategies and tools available to DOE and can create new programs (e.g., CHIPS and Science Act Sec. 10691, 10713, 10714, and 10715) to expand its capabilities.

A notable new program that the CHIPS and Science Act created is the Foundation for Energy Security and Innovation (FESI), an idea that ITIF championed for several years. Although the CHIPS and Science Act did not authorize initial funding for FESI, DOE expects to launch FESI in September 2023, and the FY 2024 President’s budget request (PBR) has asked for $31 million to support its launch. But without appropriating the funds, FESI’s mission to enhance energy security and clean energy innovation will not be achieved.

The CHIPS and Science Act authorizations alone are by no means sufficient to advance DOE’s mission. While the CHIPS and Science Act authorizations have the potential to double the budget for the Office of Science and the Office of Electricity’s RD&D activities, the percentage boosts are lower for other offices (figure 1). (The enacted annual budgets for DOE and other federal agencies are part of the discretionary spending provided in the 12 appropriation acts, which are facing lower baseline spending due to the recent debt ceiling fight.) As ITIF’s recent energy budget report pointed out, these offices are the very ones that are falling the most behind ITIF’s Energizing America recommendations, which provide a roadmap for federal clean energy innovation including the levels of investment needed to reach objectives.

Figure 1: Enacted or PBR vs. CHIPS and Science Act authorization for DOE offices per fiscal year ($millions)

The fiscal year 2024 appropriation season is now fully underway. As is stands, the current funding levels—even with the boosts from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and IRA—still trend below Energizing America’s recommended levels. Continued appropriation of funds is essential to achieve the leaps in innovation leading to the net-zero GHG future and the ability to compete in that emerging landscape. Congress should vote to deliver the full amounts authorized to continue energizing innovation that will drive costs down and boost performance. Congress and the administration should not lose sight of the continued need to pass legislation that bolsters America’s competitive capacity, in energy and in other key areas. An innovator’s job is never done.