Earlier this month, the US Senate Appropriations Committee announced an agreement had been reached on the first of three FY2019 minibus appropriations packages for the US federal budget. On September 21, the package became public law.

This first package consists of appropriations bills for Energy and Water Development, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Legislative Branch. The information below has been extracted from various federal documents, including explanatory reports and appropriations bills.

Selected DoE Programs

The DoE has been allotted $35.7 billion in funding for fiscal 2019, an increase of 3.4%, for science, energy, environmental and national security programs. According to senate documents, the DoE is required to sustain a diverse portfolio of early-, mid- and late-stage R&D and “market transformation activities.”

For the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) program, $2.4 billion was allocated to implement funded programs and projects in FY19, a 2.5% increase, with a priority of managing the assets and improving operations of EERE user facilities. Additionally, $20 million of the EERE’s budget is to be used for early-stage technology R&D for cybersecurity that will be built into all EERE programs.

DoE Vehicle Technologies  received a 1.9% budget increase to $344 million, $163.2 million of which goes towards Battery and Electrification Technologies; $38.1 million for electric drive R&D, of which $7 million is for researching fast charging and advanced battery analytics; and $30 million for Materials Technology. Technology Acceleration activities were provided $21 million, which includes $3 million for manufacturing R&D and $7 million for industry-led initiatives to develop a system for hydrogen-focused renewable energy production, storage, and transportation fuel distribution and retailing. The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies budget recorded a 4.3% bump in its budget to $120 million.

With a 1.5% increase, funding for Renewable Energy now totals $527.5 million. This small increase comes from a 3.8% increase for the geothermal technologies budget, with solar, wind and water energy funding remaining flat. Advanced Manufacturing received a 3.4% boost in funding to $888 million, which includes $5 million for catalyst science for directing chemical reactions in industrial manufacturing and developing new industrial product applications.

DoE Office of Science

The DoE Office of Science received a 5.1% budget increase to $6.6 billion for FY19. The budget for Basic Energy Sciences research rose 1% to $1.8 billion, which includes funds to make instrument repairs, replacements and improvements. Biological and Environmental Research (BER) funding jumped 4.5% to $705 million, with its only directives to prioritize optimizing operations of BER user facilities and maintain a focus on Genomic Science. Of the available funding, $100 million will go towards the four Bioenergy Research Centers; $90 million is for  Foundational Genomics Research; $34.9 million is for Biomolecular Characterization and Imaging Science; and $70 million is for the Joint Genome Institute. The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory was provided $45 million. Additionally, $10 million was allocated for the establishment of a national microbiome database.

Fusion Energy Sciences research received a moderate budget boost, up 5.3% to $434 million. Plasma science is highlighted in the bill, with $286.7 allotted to burning plasma science foundations; $61.2 million for burning plasma science long pulse; and $84.1 million for discovery plasma science. Moreover, $18 million of funds was designated for High Energy Density Laboratory Plasmas, while $25 million is for Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing.

Funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA–E) jumped 3.6% to $366 million. The explanatory documents explicitly stated that the DoE is not to use any funds to either plan for or execute the termination of the ARPA–E program.