S 2714 Introduced – ARPA-E Reauthorization

Last week Sen Van Hollen (D,MD) introduced S 2714, the ARPA–E Reauthorization Act of 2019. The bill is very similar to HR 4091 that was adopted in Committee last month.

The Senate version of the bill does not include the radioactive waste addition to the ARPA-E goals (42 USC 16538(c) that was included in the House version, but it did include the broad ‘security’ provision that I discussed in my post about the introduction of HR 4091.

Most of the other changes to §16538 made by this version of the bill are similar to those made in the House version. The spending authorizations are the same as were included in the managers amendment to HR 4091 that was included in the Committee’s approval of that bill.

Moving Forward

Van Hollen is not a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. His one cosponsor, Sen Alexander (R,TN), is, however, so it is reasonable to suspect that this bill could be considered in Committee. I would suspect that it would receive the same bipartisan support as was seen in the House for HR 4091.

As I noted earlier today, this bill was included in the list of bills that will be addressed tomorrow in a legislative hearing before the Committee. That does not mean that the bill will automatically be considered in a markup, but it is very likely.