Rodney Frelinghuysen: “My colleague's amendment would eliminate funding for ARPA-E. The committee's top responsibility, of course, is to reduce…”

“My colleague's amendment would eliminate funding for ARPA-E. The committee's top responsibility, of course, is to reduce government spending, and I appreciate my colleague's amendment and perhaps some of his other amendments for that reason. To that end, our bill reduces spending for energy and water development to near the 2006 level, $100 billion below fiscal year 2011, and a full $5.9 billion below the request. I certainly share many of my colleague's concerns about this program. The committee has taken a very close look at it. Right now, ARPA-E must not intervene where private capital markets are already acting, and it must not be redundant with other programs of the Department of Energy. I oppose the gentleman's amendment. I yield to the ranking member, Mr. Visclosky.”