Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Senate committee member presses Secretary Wright on FY26 cuts, award cancellations and layoffs
Summary
At a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, a committee member criticized Secretary Wright over the Department of Energy's FY26 budget request and recent department actions, including cancellation of $3.7 billion in awards, staff terminations, and proposed cuts to national labs and research programs.
A committee member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee pressed Secretary Wright, Secretary of Energy, during a hearing on the department's fiscal year 2026 budget request, alleging abrupt cancellations of grant awards, large staff reductions and steep cuts to research and lab funding.
The committee member told Wright that "on May 30, $3,700,000,000 in awards from the Office of Clean Energy demonstrations were canceled without notice or without justification," and called the cancellations "impoundment territory" and a potential "breach of contract." The lawmaker said the actions risked U.S. leadership on next-generation technologies and demoralized DOE staff.
The committee member cited several personnel actions in questioning Wright, saying that "less than a month later, however, 2,000 DOE employees, including hundreds of National Nuclear Security Administration…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
