E&C Democrats Press Wright on False Testimony Ahead of Tomorrow’s Court Deadline
Energy and Commerce Committee Democratic leaders today sent a second letter to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright about false testimony he and other DOE officials gave Congress, after Wright ignored the Committee’s first inquiry. The letter comes one day before Wright faces a court deadline to explain DOE’s legal authority to cancel hundreds of grants for partisan reasons.
The letter was signed by Full Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Energy Subcommittee Ranking Member Kathy Castor (D-FL), and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY).
“On multiple occasions, you and other DOE officials lied to and misled the Committee by categorically denying that politics played any role in DOE’s October 2025 grant termination decisions,” the Democratic Committee leaders wrote. “While you missed the October 6 deadline to respond to our congressional inquiry, we assume that you will respect the court’s October 27 deadline… We are curious to see how you will respond to the court because the honest and accurate statement would be that Congress in no way authorized DOE to terminate hundreds of grants ‘for political reasons.’”
In April, Wright testified to the Committee that, under his leadership, DOE had not cancelled any grants based on how a state voted in the 2024 election. Since then, DOE admitted in court that a “primary reason” for the cancellation of certain grants was “whether the grantee was located in a ‘Blue State.’” DOE then went even further in another case, stipulating that the termination of certain DOE grants “was based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state.”
Wright and DOE have also claimed in court that DOE’s termination of grants for partisan reasons was permissible, stating it had the authority to terminate grants to states that did not vote for Donald Trump and have only Democratic Senators “as leverage to end a government shutdown.” A judge overseeing the case has asked DOE several questions in response to this argument, including what Congress authorized DOE to consider in dispersing these specific funds.
“As Democratic leaders of the Committee with legislative and oversight jurisdiction over national energy policy and general management of DOE, we have not—and would not—authorize the Secretary of Energy or others at DOE to terminate properly awarded grants for partisan reasons, such as whether a state voted for a particular president or was represented by Senators of a certain party,” the three Committee leaders continued in their letter to Wright. “And the existence of a partial government shutdown did not somehow provide you with new powers to abuse the grantmaking process for partisan ends.”
The text of the letter is HERE.
###