Chris Wright tells Republicans to keep loan office funding
Energy Secretary Chris Wright took a stand for the Loan Programs Office during a Wednesday Hill budget hearing, specifically telling lawmakers they should be very careful in cutting the department's 'most effective tool' in aiding emerging low-emissions energy technologies.
At the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee hearing on the Department of Energy's budget request, Wright appeared to advocate against House Republicans' proposal to cut all unobligated Inflation Reduction Act funding to the loan office as part of their party-line budget reconciliation effort.
'It is really the most efficient tool we have in the department to help emerging energy technologies,' Wright said. 'I know [the reconciliation bill] comes to the Senate next. I'm making a plea: Don't enact the budget we send, enact the budget you know we need.'
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Wright was particularly bullish on the LPO's potential effect on nuclear energy. Next-generation reactors have struggled to prove that they can be an economic source of energy, and industry watchers widely agree federal funding will be critical to them meeting that goal.
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Trump aides want Texas to redraw its congressional maps to boost the GOP. What would that mean?
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That proposal, which would involve shifting GOP voters from safely red districts into neighboring blue ones, is aimed at safeguarding Republicans' thin majority in Congress, where they control the lower chamber, 220-212. The redistricting proposal, and the Trump team's role in pushing it, was first reported by The New York Times Monday. Without a Republican majority in Congress, Trump's legislative agenda would likely stall, and the president could face investigations from newly empowered Democratic committee chairs intent on scrutinizing the White House. Here's what we know about the plan so far: On Capitol Hill, members of the Texas GOP delegation huddled Monday night to discuss the prospect of reshaping their districts. Most of the 25-member group expressed reluctance about the idea, citing concerns about jeopardizing their districts in next year's midterms if the new maps overextended the GOP's advantage, according to the two GOP aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations. Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, was skeptical of the idea. 'We just recently worked on the new maps,' Arrington told The Texas Tribune. To reopen the process, he said, 'there'd have to be a significant benefit to our state.' The delegation has yet to be presented with mockups of new maps, two aides said. Each state's political maps must be redrawn once a decade, after each round of the U.S. census, to account for population growth and ensure every congressional and legislative district has roughly the same number of people. Texas lawmakers last overhauled their district lines in 2021. 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Musk regrets some of his Trump criticisms, says they 'went too far'
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33 minutes ago
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