Amendment to the Energy and Water Appropriations Act of 2013

Amendment to the Energy and Water Appropriations Act of 2013

Heritage Action will be key voting the following amendment[s] to the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2609):

"YES" on the McClintock Amendment

Rep. Tom McClintock's (R-Calif.) amendment would reduce funding in three accounts at the Department of Energy, saving taxpayers more than $1.5 billion.

The amendment would reduce the Office of Renewable Energy, Energy Reliability, and Efficiency account by $731,600,000 and the Office of Nuclear Energy account by $362,329,000. It would also strikes funding for the Fossil Energy Research and Development account, which is set at $450,000,000.

The Heritage Foundation's Nick Loris recommended similar cuts and eliminations in a report last year that outlined the proper role of the Department of Energy.

As Loris noted earlier today, "The federal government's role in research is not to lower the costs of the technology to make that technology competitive in the marketplace. Government support that targets one group or industry artificially props up the market. Rather than increase competition, a special endorsement from the government gives one technology an unfair price advantage over other one."

Heritage Action supports the McClintock Amendment and will include it as a vote on our legislative scorecard.