[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 19 (Monday, January 30, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H496-H498]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 COST-SHARE ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2023

  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill 
(H.R. 342) to amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to require reporting 
relating to certain cost-share requirements, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                H.R. 342

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Cost-Share Accountability 
     Act of 2023''.

     SEC. 2. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.

       Section 988 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 
     16352) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
     subsection:
       ``(g) Reporting.--Not later than 120 days after the date of 
     the enactment of this subsection and at least quarterly 
     thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on 
     Science, Space, and Technology and Committee on 
     Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the 
     Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the Committee 
     on Appropriations of the Senate, and shall make publicly 
     available, a report on the use by the Department during the 
     period covered by the report of the authority to reduce or 
     eliminate cost-sharing requirements provided by subsection 
     (b)(3) or (c)(2).''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Oklahoma (Mr. Lucas) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oklahoma.


                             General Leave

  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 
5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include 
extraneous material on H.R. 342, the bill now under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Oklahoma?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 342, the Cost-Share 
Accountability Act

[[Page H497]]

of 2023 introduced by my friend, Representative Obernolte.
  H.R. 342 is a good-government bill that does exactly what it says it 
will: it improves accountability.
  When making awards, the Department of Energy is subject to cost-share 
requirements for most research, development, demonstration, and 
commercial application activities.
  DOE can modify or eliminate those requirements when necessary, an 
authority which has been critical to supporting and developing new 
technologies.
  This bill is very simple. It requires DOE to submit a quarterly 
report to Congress describing the instances where they have modified or 
waived those cost-share requirements. The bill also makes those reports 
publicly available.
  H.R. 342 doesn't prevent DOE from waiving cost-share requirements. It 
just ensures that those decisions are made public. This transparency 
and accountability is important because it allows us to ensure we are 
making the best possible use of taxpayer resources. It is a smart, 
bipartisan policy.
  I thank Representative Obernolte and Representative Foster for 
working on this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I join the chairman today in supporting H.R. 342, the 
Cost-Share Accountability Act of 2023. I am pleased that today we are 
considering this bill.
  Many of the clean energy technologies deployed throughout the Nation 
today have benefited from financial support from the Department of 
Energy.
  The bipartisan Cost-Sharing Accountability Act of 2023 would 
strengthen the reporting requirements related to certain cost-sharing 
requirements at DOE.
  Specifically, the bill would require the Secretary of Energy to 
report on the use of the statutory authority to reduce or eliminate 
cost-sharing requirements for research, for development, for 
demonstration, as well as commercial application activities.
  As the chairman has noted, better reporting on financial assistance 
will help us to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely. As 
mentioned, we passed a matching version of this bill under a suspension 
of the rules in the last Congress. It is time, we hope, for the Senate 
to take this bill up and pass it this year after the House passes this 
again.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Obernolte).
  Mr. OBERNOLTE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the gentleman from 
Oklahoma (Mr. Lucas) for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of my bill, H.R. 342, the Cost-
Sharing Accountability Act.
  Mr. Speaker, research and development grants in the field of energy 
administered by the Department of Energy play a critical role in 
innovation and energy research in the United States. The administration 
and awarding of those grants is governed by the Energy Policy Act of 
2005.
  Among other things, that act requires the DOE to impose a cost share 
on the recipients of those grants. That cost share can be as low as 20 
percent in the case of research and development grants, or as high as 
50 percent in the case of commercialization and demonstration grants.
  The purpose of this cost share is simple. It is to ensure that the 
grant recipients also have some skin in the game when it comes to 
ensuring the success of the grants and the projects that they are 
bidding on and demonstrating.
  Several months ago, the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of 
the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held an oversight 
hearing in which we investigated the occasions on which the Department 
of Energy had waived those cost-sharing requirements on grants that it 
had awarded.
  The DOE has the statutory ability to waive those cost shares under 
the appropriate circumstances. We wanted to make sure that that 
authority was being exercised judiciously.
  Although we found that the DOE was appropriately waiving those cost 
shares under those circumstances, we were very surprised by the lack of 
transparency in that process and equally surprised by the difficulty 
with which the subcommittee had in acquiring the information about how 
often the DOE was waiving those cost shares.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill, H.R. 342, is a very simple solution to that 
problem. It will require the DOE to make quarterly reports to the 
committees of jurisdiction in both the House and the Senate on the 
occasions and the circumstances under which it waives cost-share 
requirements for the grants that it awards.

                              {time}  1645

  This will enhance Congress' ability to exercise oversight over the 
DOE. Equally importantly, it will impose greater transparency into this 
process for the parties that apply for these grants, and it will 
demonstrate the circumstances under which the DOE would consider 
waiving those cost-share requirements.
  Mr. Speaker, this is basic good governance. It is an oversight bill. 
I hope it is something that we all on both sides of the aisle can 
support.
  I thank my cosponsor, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Foster), for 
his leadership on this issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of H.R. 342.
  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from California (Mr. 
Obernolte) for introducing this bill.
  I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Foster), the 
cosponsor of this bill and last year's chair of the Investigations and 
Oversight Subcommittee.
  Mr. FOSTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 342, the Cost-
Share Accountability Act.
  This bill, which I co-led with its sponsor, Congressman Obernolte, 
was born out of a joint hearing that we held last Congress, which 
discussed best practices for financial assistance agreements within the 
Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy.
  This bill mandates reports on the Department's use of cost-sharing 
practices, which require organizations receiving grants from the 
Department of Energy to fund a portion of the project's costs.
  I am a big fan of cost-sharing agreements as a mechanism to make sure 
that taxpayer dollars are well spent. There are circumstances under 
which they may appropriately be waived, but in order for Congress to 
fulfill our oversight responsibilities, we must be able to access 
information on how those requirements are being implemented and when 
they are being waived.
  This legislation is fundamental good governance, an important step to 
increase the transparency of the Department of Energy's funding 
practices, and I look forward to working with the Department of Energy 
to ensure that cost-sharing is implemented fairly and effectively and 
that it is supporting the Department's and Congress' priorities.
  I thank Representative Obernolte for his leadership on this 
legislation, which passed the House in a strong bipartisan vote last 
Congress, and also for his service as ranking member of the 
Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight that I chaired last 
Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, let me close by urging everyone to support 
this good bill, and let's celebrate carrying on the fine tradition of 
bipartisan legislative action in the Science Committee. I look forward 
to the rest of this Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 342 will create more transparency around 
the DOE awards and help us better oversee our investments in cutting-
edge energy technologies. It is bipartisan, commonsense legislation, 
which is why it passed the House on suspension last year.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill once again, 
and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 342--``The 
Cost-Share Accountability Act of 2023.''

[[Page H498]]

  H.R. 342 requires the Department of Energy to report quarterly to 
Congress on the use of the department's authority to reduce or 
eliminate cost-sharing requirements for various research, development, 
and demonstration projects.
  Specifically, this bill aims to establish the necessary requirements 
to effectively set the standards for quarterly reporting to Congress in 
order to ensure proper management of capital allotment between energy 
departments.
  Mr. Speaker, The Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005 (Public Law 109-
58), the underlying statute of H.R. 342 which provides the background 
history for H.R. 342, calls for the development of grant programs, 
demonstration and testing initiatives, and tax incentives that promote 
alternative fuels and advanced vehicles production and use.
  H.R. 342--``The Cost-Share Accountability Act of 2023'' will provide 
advancements towards energy innovations that will benefit both the 
state of energy independence of the United States as well as critical 
energy advancements for the future.
  The Secretary of Energy has the authority to reduce or eliminate cost 
sharing requirements for applied research and development as necessary 
and appropriate.
  Moreover, the Secretary may reduce cost sharing requirements for 
demonstration and commercial application activities as necessary and 
appropriate, taking into consideration any technological risk relating 
to the activity.
  Mr. Speaker, based on the S&P Global macroeconomic model completed on 
January 5th, it is expected that the U.S. real GDP will grow by 0.5 
percent in 2023, with economic growth returning after contraction in 
the first quarter of 2023.
  In 2024, the estimated real GDP will grow by 1.9 percent, driven 
primarily by an increase in household consumption. This means that 
there will be relatively flat economic growth in 2023 resulting in 
total U.S. energy consumption falling by 0.9 percent in the forecast. 
However, total energy consumption then rises by 1.0 percent in 2024.
  This evidence provides us a basis for making sure we have the proper 
standards in place for effective accounting for key departments 
performing various research, development, and demonstration projects.
  As a senior Member of the Budget Committee, I understand the 
importance of providing clarity and transparency to the American people 
on the allocation of funds.
  I urge all my colleagues to join me in voting in favor of H.R. 342, 
``The Cost-Share Accountability Act of 2023'' so we can provide 
transparency to the American people while addressing the proper 
implementations towards efficient allotment of cost-sharing.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Lucas) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 342.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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