Review of the 2016 Department of Energy Budget Request

• •The Department of Energy requested a budget of $30.5 billion for fiscal year 2016.
• •The requested budget represents a $2.5 billion increase over the previous year's appropriation.
• •The President's total discretionary budget request exceeds Budget Control Act spending caps by $74 billion.
• •The subcommittee's total available increase for both defense and non-defense spending under the Budget Control Act is approximately $3 billion.
• •The Department of Energy manages 17 national laboratories, 10 of which are overseen by the Office of Science.
• •ARPA-E has received approximately $1 billion in appropriations since 2009, funding over 400 projects.
• •The U.S. aims to regain the world's fastest supercomputer by 2017.
• •The wind energy subsidy costs taxpayers approximately $6 billion annually.
• •The subcommittee is prioritizing four areas: basic energy research, reducing spending on mature technologies, advanced scientific computing, and nuclear waste management.

The hearing sets the stage for the upcoming appropriations bill, which will determine funding levels for national laboratories, energy research, and nuclear security programs for the 2016 fiscal year.

Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.