Senator Challenges ARPA‑E Nominee on 57% Budget Cut and Renewables Exclusion

A senator sharply questioned Mr. Prochaska, ARPA‑E nominee and witness, during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, saying the agency’s budget was being cut by 57% and asking whether the agency’s budget language barred funding for solar and wind.

The senator said the ARPA‑E budget document states, “Green new scam technologies are not supported,” and asked, “That means no renewables. Right?” Mr. Prochaska replied, “That is not correct, sir,” and later said, “the portfolio, that we will investigate will include all technologies,” adding he could not opine on the definition of the quoted language but would ensure a broad technology portfolio if confirmed.

Why it matters: the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, or ARPA‑E, funds high‑risk energy research; steep budget cuts or explicit exclusions of technologies could change which projects the agency can support and affect the development timeline of energy technologies nationwide.

In the exchange, the senator criticized what he described as a contrast between praise for ARPA‑E staff and the scale of proposed cuts. He said the agency’s budget is being “cut by 57%” and that another agency, the U.S. Geological Survey, was being cut “by more than a third.” The senator also called renewable energy “the fastest growing cheapest source of electricity in the United States today,” and cited an earlier answer given to Senator Catherine Cortez Masto about batteries pairing with solar and wind to provide baseload power.

Mr. Prochaska said he could not interpret the specific phrase in the budget document but committed that, if confirmed, ARPA‑E’s portfolio review would “include all technologies that [were] mentioned to the senators” and that reliable energy sources would be an important focus. He also said, "I can't opine on what the definition of that language is. I can commit to, if confirmed, that the ARPA‑E portfolio that we investigate and we look into will include, all technologies that mentioned to the senators."

The hearing record shows this exchange was a discussion between a senator and the nominee; no committee vote or formal committee action about ARPA‑E funding or policy was recorded in the provided transcript excerpt.

The senator closed the exchange by saying he would “watch what you do,” noting he was not making the criticism personal to Mr. Prochaska but would judge the agency by future actions and budgets.