Watchdog agency finds US DOE may have wrongly redirected clean energy funds

The Trump administration may have violated federal law by redirecting fiscal year 2025 funds away from clean energy research and development, the US Government Accountability Office concluded in a legal decision issued June 4.

The DOE did not respond to a request for comment on June 5.

The nonpartisan agency, known as an independent watchdog for the US Congress, issued the decision in response to a request from Senator Patty Murray, Democrat-Washington, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Representative Marcy Kaptur, Democrat-Ohio, ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.

In July 2025, Murray and Kaptur formally asked the GAO to issue a legal determination on whether the US Energy Department's fiscal year 2025 spending plan violated the federal Purpose Statute and the Antideficiency Act. The Purpose Statute requires that appropriated funds be used only for the specific purposes for which Congress intended and authorized them, while the Antideficiency Act prohibits agencies from spending in excess of appropriated amounts.

In its June 4 decision, the GAO found that the DOE's fiscal year 2026 budget justification appears to show fiscal year 2025 funding obligations for five of six congressional "control point" accounts in excess of amounts originally set forth in a full-year fiscal year 2024 funding bill. The fiscal year 2024 amounts, as well as the fiscal year 2024 spending package's explanatory statement, were carried forward for fiscal year 2025 under a continuing resolution largely passed by congressional Republicans and signed by President Donald Trump

The five DOE accounts identified by the GAO were for energy efficiency and renewable energy, nuclear energy, fossil energy, non-defense environmental cleanup and science.

"On its face, DOE's obligations in comparison to the congressionally set ceiling amounts from the FY 2024 explanatory statement suggest that DOE may have violated the Purpose Statute and the [Antideficiency Act]," the GAO said.

However, the GAO cautioned that "it may be possible that DOE's seeming over-obligations stem from other available funding sources, such as carry-over no-year appropriations from prior years or transfer authority."

The GAO said the DOE "has not provided us with adequate information about its funding sources to determine whether a Purpose Statute or an [Antideficiency Act] violation has occurred."

Democrats say decision confirms 'lawbreaking'

In a news release, Murray and Kaptur went further by arguing that the GAO's June 4 decision "confirmed what's been clear from the start: the Trump administration broke the law when it gutted investments in affordable, clean energy."

The Democrats noted that the fiscal year 2024 spending package — which was effectively carried forward into fiscal year 2025 — provided the DOE with $137 million for wind energy and $318 million for solar energy. But the Trump administration allocated just $29.8 million for wind and $41.9 million for solar in fiscal year 2025, resulting in respective cuts of 78% and 87%, they said.

Meanwhile, Murray and Kaptur noted that the DOE issued a notice of funding opportunity in February, making $146.5 million in fiscal year 2025 funds available for geothermal energy despite Congress only providing $118 million for the technology.

"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," Murray and Kaptur said. "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."

The GAO report comes as House Republicans advance a fiscal year 2027 energy and water spending package that would implement a 40% cut to Biden-era clean energy programs. The package would boost funding for nuclear and geothermal energy, as well as critical minerals, materials and manufacturing.