On Friday, January 23, the president signed into law H.R. 6938, the “Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026,” which makes consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes.
This bill signing closes out a tumultuous few months of negotiations, government shutdown impacts, and priority debates in several departments and agencies of great concern to GBI and GBI members–the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While the legislation, which funds the departments and agencies through September 30, 2026, cuts program funding for things like the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, and reduces EPA’s overall operating budget by several hundred million dollars, it does contain a few items of note. First, the appropriated funds contain increased funding for nuclear energy, grid security and supports for the DOE Office of Science; and, most notably, the law contains $32 million specifically to support the continuation of the ENERGY STAR program, which is a vital public-private voluntary program that has provided great benefit to the energy efficiency work done in the buildings sector since its inception. This program had originally been slated for elimination in the original budget request for FY2026.
GBI and many other industry groups worked to educate lawmakers about the importance of ENERGY STAR and its work with private sector industry, which in turn led to Congress showing its strong support for the program by providing it with the program’s first specific line item of funding in the appropriations bill. While department and agency program and staff reorganizations are still shaking out, we are hopeful that the strong signal sent from Congress on the importance of ENERGY STAR will help the program continue to work with and serve the industry in years to come.
In the meantime, Congress is still in the process of completing the last remaining appropriations bills, having missed the January 30 deadline for finalizing funding for fiscal year 2026. The remaining bills include funding for the Departments of Transportation, Labor/Health and Human Services, Defense, and Homeland Security. Late on January 30, the Senate passed a package of bills funding all but Department of Homeland Security (which received a separate two week Continuing Resolution to continue operations). The House of Representatives must now must consider and pass this package of bills, a feat that the chamber is attempting to complete during the week of February 2.