Action Needed – 37 “Industry-Critical” Federal Programs Have Been Proposed for Severe Cuts or Elimination in the President’s Fiscal Year 2021 Federal Budget

These Cuts Have the Potential to Negatively Affect All National Bioeconomy Businesses

By CJ Evans, Executive Director, Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition

Managing Director, American Diversified Energy

Special to The Digest

The Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition (AFCC) has been working on Capitol Hill for the past two months to advocate for FY2021 federal programs and funding that are of importance to the alternative fuels, renewable chemicals, biobased products, and sustainable aviation fuels industries.

Several of these programs are at risk of being eliminated or having their funding severely reduced.

HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FUNDING FOR THESE PROGRAMS FOR THIS FISCAL YEAR

Due to its efforts last year, the first year in which AFCC was active, AFCC was able to highlight FY2020 federal funding programs that needed attention and contribute to efforts to maintain, and in several cases, increase, prior year funding levels:

• Of the programs proposed for severe cuts in the President’s fiscal year (FY) 2020 Budget, AFCC was successful in restoring full funding for 15 programs in the amount of $2.73 billion over the President’s requests.

• Of the programs proposed for elimination in the President’s FY2020 Budget, AFCC was successful in restoring full funding for 24 programs in the amount of $42.2 billion.
• Fifteen of the 51 programs for which AFCC advocated also received increases amounting to $2.5 billion over their 2019 appropriations.
• This was offset somewhat by cuts to the FY2019 funding levels for 13 programs, amounting to $627,998,127.
• The total increase in FY2020 funding levels over FY2019 appropriations for the 51 programs targeted for attention by AFCC was $1.96 billion.
• These are the funding levels under which these federal programs currently are operating.

For more detail, please click on the following link to view the results of AFCC’s advocacy efforts to restore and maintain funding for key bioeconomy programs in FY2020.

SEVERAL OF THESE PROGRAMS MAY BE OF BENEFIT TO YOU RIGHT NOW

The programs that provide grants and low-interest loans are particularly important right now. This is because they:

• Offer a means of securing business and project funding to carry out activities that can keep operations going, help meet payrolls, and keep employees busy.

• Allow companies to make improvements and advances that will strengthen their operations.
• Provide opportunities to operate in the current financial stress the nations faces, and emerge from the COVID19 crisis in a stronger competitive position.
• For more information on federal grant, loan, and loan guarantee programs, and how you can apply, please follow the links on American Diversified Energy’s (ADE’s) “Find Funding” series of website pages.

HERE’S THE OUTLOOK FOR KEY PROGRAMS IN THE FY2021 FEDERAL BUDGET

For FY2021, AFCC has identified 53 programs of importance to the bioeconomy for which it is advocating in Congress for continued funding.

Of these, 37 programs have been designated as “industry-critical.” This is because the authorizations or appropriations for these programs have expired and not been renewed, or because they have been targeted for significant cuts or elimination in the President’s FY2021 Budget.

The appropriation subcommittees overseeing the programs identified as priorities by AFCC are:

• Agriculture: 10 programs, 6 of which are “industry-critical” priorities
• Commerce, Science, and Justice: 11 programs, 4 of which are “industry-critical” priorities
• Energy and Water: 8 programs, 8 of which are “industry-critical” priorities
• Interior and Environment: 11 programs, 9 of which are “industry-critical” priorities
• Transportation: 13 programs, 10 of which are “industry-critical” priorities

Your help is needed in advocating for these programs.

HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Please go to AFCC’s website:

• View AFCC’s FY2021 appropriation requests for the Agriculture & Rural Development (Ag); Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS); Energy & Water (E&W); Interior & Environment (I&E); and Transportation (Transp) appropriation subcommittees in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.
• For each subcommittee, AFCC has prepared summary and detailed tables describing the past four years of funding levels for the 51 programs that AFCC has identified as important to the bioeconomy, along with the President’s FY2021 budget request and AFCC’s FY2021 request.
• AFCC also has prepared individual appropriation requests for each of the 37 “industry-critical” programs that are under threat of severe cuts or elimination. These requests mimic member office appropriation request forms.

2. Reach out to your members of Congress to voice your support for these programs:

• A list of the members of Congress who serve on each of the House and Senate appropriation subcommittees has been posted on AFCC’s website. The list of subcommittee members can be viewed here.
• The name of each subcommittee member is hyperlinked to the member’s office website, where you can learn more about the member, as well as how to contact his or her Washington DC and state or district offices.

3. Download and send staff in these offices AFCC’s funding requests

4. Offer to submit these requests on the office’s appropriation request forms using AFCC’s individual appropriation requests as a guide.

5. Use the “POINTS TO MAKE,” below, to support your request for continued funding for these programs.

6. Call AFCC at 202-922-0144 or email us at [email protected] if you have questions or need help.

POINTS TO MAKE

• Explain that AFCC’s FY2021 appropriation requests are consistent with prior year appropriations.
• Explain that: The objective of these requests is to support robust funding opportunities to stimulate the development and production of alternative fuels, renewable chemicals, biobased products, sustainable aviation fuels, and other bioeconomy industries.

EXPLAIN WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The development and production of these products offers every state and virtually every Congressional District an opportunity to create jobs and stimulate economic development.

Pick one or two programs overseen by the appropriations subcommittee on which your members of Congress serve. Explain how your company and business operations are positively affected by these programs and would be negatively affected by their elimination or reduction in funding.

Emphasize the number of jobs and economic stimulus your company brings to your representative’s district and your senators’ state … both now and what’s in store for the future.

EXPLAIN HOW EVERYONE IN THE U.S. BENEFITS

• The programmatic funding levels for which AFCC is advocating make it possible for federal agencies to issue funding opportunities to carry out agency missions.
• Funding opportunities are available for each of the nine Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), which move ideas from concept to commercial realization. These funding opportunities stimulate ingenuity, support innovation, prove out and validate new ideas, lead to the introduction of new products and new technologies, create jobs, improve the quality of life, solve problems, and drive American competitiveness and global leadership.
• These funding programs form a progressive ladder that moves new ideas successively forward, with each step building one upon the other, leading from an early concept (TRL-1), up through research and development, to testing and validation, then to prototyping and piloting, and finally to first commercialization (TRL-9), followed by further expansion and deployment,  which is where local communities and everyone in the U.S. benefits. 
• Each TRL step is critical; reduce the funding for one and the others cannot occur.
• A list of the federal funding programs that are available for each TRL level (which appeared in Biofuels Digest in two parts on October 15 and 22, 2018) can be viewed and downloaded on AFCC’s website by following the link above.

FIVE MORE KEY POINTS TO MAKE

1. The focus of AFCC’s appropriations requests is to ensure the continuation – and where possible, the expansion –  of the federal funding opportunities  that advance research and development, support testing and validation, lead to the commercial deployment of new technologies, services, and products, and grow the bioeconomy.
2. These funding opportunities have the potential to benefit every state and Congressional District and their constituents. For example, the majority of AFCC’s more than 45 member companies use waste products to make their products (thus turning liabilities into assets); hence, they can locate new facilities in local communities almost anywhere. Moreover, they distribute and sell products throughout the U.S., which touch the lives of every American, support tens of thousands of indirect and induced jobs, and have a positive economic impact in every Congressional district.  (Please feel free to add details about your company and its operations here as well.)
3. These funding opportunities play a critical role in the market economy. They stimulate innovation. They lead to the development of new technologies, services, and products.
4. Most importantly, they prime the pump for private sector investment.   They do this by providing the necessary validation and reduction of risk to give private sector investors and lenders the confidence that is needed to put their money into financing new technologies, services and products and deploying them widely throughout the marketplace to grow the bioeconomy.
5. Without this validation and reduction of risk, very few, if any, private sector investors will take a chance on something that is new, innovative, or disruptive. Thus, the benefits that could accrue to the market economy and American public may never be realized and could be lost forever ….

For more tips on influencing your members of Congress, see How to Lobby Effectively on AFCC’s website.

HERE’S ONE MORE WAY YOU CAN HELP

Please join AFCC. The more members AFCC has, the more it can do for you and the bioeconomy.

AFCC is a non-profit 501(c)6 advocacy organization that works on behalf of its member companies to:

• Ensure federal funding is available for the programs that are important to these companies and the alternative fuels, renewable chemicals, biobased products, and sustainable aviation fuels industries;
• Pursue public policies that will be of benefit to its member companies and the bioeconomy sectors in which they operate;
• Fight public policies that will have a negative impact. 

The issues on which AFCC is working – such as funding for programs that promote innovation, efficiency and sustainability; sufficient staffing to expedite regulatory reviews; and federal tax policy – impact the costs of operations by creating savings through greater efficiency, better performance, reduced maintenance (hence, more time in service), and fewer health and environmental impacts (thus, lower mitigation costs).

For information on AFCC’s recent activities, please go to AFCC News & Reports on its website.

For information about the benefits of becoming an AFCC member company, please see “Why Join AFCC?”