PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · May 22, 2018
ARPA-E Act of 2018
This bill amends the America COMPETES Act to require the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) in the Department of Energy (DOE) to overcome the long-term and high-risk technological barriers in the development of transformative science and technology solutions to address energy, environmental, economic, and national security challenges. (Currently, ARPA-E must overcome barriers in the development of energy technologies.)
The bill expands the goals of ARPA-E to include the development of energy technologies that:
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
provide transformative solutions to improve management of radioactive waste,
improve the efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of energy production, and
address other challenges within the mission of DOE.
The bill expands the responsibility of ARPA-E to accelerate novel early-stage research to include nonenergy research.
ARPA-E must:
include a strategic vision roadmap in each annual report on energy technology projects or advanced technology projects, and
ensure that it does not fund an advanced technology project unless the prospective grantee has demonstrated that it has sufficiently attempted to secure private financing or that such project is not independently commercially viable.
Specified categories of proprietary information collected by ARPA-E from award recipients shall be considered privileged and confidential and not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
People & committees
Rep. Lucas, Frank D. [R-OK-3] · R–OK
Legislative record
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Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H5779)
Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote.(text: CR H5779)
DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 5906.
Considered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H5779-5781)
Mr. Lucas moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.
Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote.
Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
Referred to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
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No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Sep 8, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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Analyze H.R.5906 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
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