Democrats Find ARPA-E Progressing Well—Take Testimony From the GAO And Energy's IG
(Washington, DC) – Today the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight held a hearing entitled “A Review of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E.)” The stated purpose of the hearing was to review ARPA-E’s performance and evaluate recent reports on the agency from the Department of Energy General (DOE IG) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Additionally, the Republican Committee staff released their own staff paper derived from the work papers of GAO and the DOE IG.
While both GAO and the Inspector General generally found the program to be well run and addressing issues that have been identified through their work, the Majority issued a staff report. Ranking Member Paul Tonko (D-NY) said in his opening statement, “It appears that when GAO’s report did not give the majority the findings they hoped for, the majority staff wrote the report it wished to receive. The majority staff went through GAO’s work papers, cherry-picked some examples and then portrayed the law as saying something that it does not say. These are hallmarks of a partisan hit piece, not a thoughtful, thorough report. Just as one example, the staff report points to several examples of companies that received private sector funding or funding from other Federal programs. However, the report does not validate whether the funding is duplicative with ARPA-E funding or not. The report settles for assertion and hand-waving where only facts should matter.”
After listening to all the testimony, Mr. Tonko added: “I have to say that the IG and GAO—the two places we turn to for honest evaluations of how programs are doing—both came back from their reviews of ARPA-E with largely positive reports. It would seem to me that simple fairness would dictate that the Committee acknowledge that and congratulate Dr. Majumdar on his accomplishments. I am disappointed that partisanship has sunk to the level where we cannot even come together for such a simple thing as acknowledging when we find a program that seems to be on the right track.”
In 2007, Congress created ARPA-E to accelerate research and development on high-risk, high-reward energy technologies. ARPA-E has been widely recognized as one of the most efficient, effective and transparent programs in government today. With a streamlined, non-bureaucratic organization staffed by some of the best and brightest from academia and industry serving for limited terms, ARPA-E quickly set a new bar for government research programs. In addition to the speed at which it works, ARPA-E also shutters projects and recovers funding when technical targets are not met. ARPA-E has been performing so well that the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, the industry-led American Energy Innovation Council, and Congressional Appropriators have suggested that the management principles and practices of ARPA-E be exported to other offices within DOE.
Mr. Tonko went on to say, “Given the importance of energy to every sector of our economy and to all our citizens, I believe we not only can afford this program – we cannot afford to lose it. Other national governments are investing in the energy technologies of the future – clean energy technologies, especially renewable energy technologies. The Chinese government invested $34.6 billion in clean energy in 2009, while the United States invested $18.6 billion. Perhaps, others are willing to accept second place in the race to develop new energy technologies. I am not.”
Related Content
Next Article Previous Article