GAO Investigation Requested by Murray, Kaptur Confirms Energy Department Illegally Steered Funding Away from Clean Energy

ICYMI : Murray, Kaptur Asked GAO to Look Into Energy Department's Decision to Steer Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Away from Wind, Solar in Defiance of Spending Law

Washington, D.C. - Today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that the Department of Energy's (DOE) decision last year to steer hundreds of millions of dollars provided by Congress in fiscal year 2025 for the research and development of clean energy sources toward energy sources favored by Secretary Christ Wright violated the law.

GAO's investigation into the matter was requested last July by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.

In a statement responding to the decision, Senator Murray and Congresswoman Kaptur said:

"Today, GAO confirmed what's been clear from the start: the Trump administration broke the law when it gutted investments in affordable, clean energy. Secretary Wright unilaterally rewrote a spending bill signed into law by President Trump, all so he could benefit handpicked industries at the expense of clean energy research Americans are counting on to lower their energy bills. GAO has made clear that this was not merely a policy choice-it was a clear violation of appropriations law.

"The Department of Energy cannot simply ignore the law because the Secretary has a vendetta against the most affordable energy sources. American families have paid the price for this lawbreaking-in higher energy costs, in canceled university and industry research awards, and in national lab scientists who lost their jobs. The administration must take steps to immediately comply with the law, and we must work on a bipartisan basis to insist the Department follows the law."

In fiscal year 2024, Congress provided $137 million for DOE to support wind energy and $318 million to support solar energy. The fiscal year 2025 full-year continuing resolution-written by House Republicans and signed into law by President Trump in March 2025-continued those funding levels. However, in a spend plan made public on July 2, 2025, the Trump administration revealed it was steering hundreds of millions of dollars away from congressionally directed clean energy technologies to other, favored industries. Rather than fund wind at the enacted level of $137 million, the administration allocated just $29.8 million - a 78% cut. Rather than fund solar at the enacted level of $318 million, it allocated just $41.9 million - an 87% cut.

On July 28, 2025, Kaptur and Murray formally asked GAO to issue a legal decision on whether DOE's FY2025 spend plan violated the Purpose Statute-which requires that appropriations be used only for the purposes for which they were provided-and the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits agencies from obligating funds in excess of available appropriations.

On February 25, 2026, as DOE began obligating funds in defiance of the law-including issuing a Notice of Funding Opportunity making $146.5 million in FY2025 funds available for geothermal energy despite Congress providing only $118 million-Kaptur and Murray renewed their GAO referral and called on the Department to immediately reverse course. Today's GAO legal decision responds to that request.

In its decision today, GAO stated: "DOE is required to obligate and expend its FY 2025 appropriations in accordance with the referenced congressional control point amounts in the FY 2024 explanatory statement. …. To the extent that DOE obligated or expended FY 2025 funds in excess of appropriated amounts-that is the FY 2024 levels described above-DOE should report an Antideficiency Act violation."

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