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May 23, 2025
Submitted on behalf of: 
Amalia Corby
Director of Federal Affairs
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The ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ (ASM) urges Congress to increase funding for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science to $9.5 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2026. This is consistent with the Energy Sciences Coalition, of which ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿is a member. 

ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿appreciates the opportunity to submit outside witness testimony for the Fiscal Year 2026 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies appropriations bill. Established in 1899, ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿is one of the oldest and largest single life science societies, with 37,000 members in the U.S. and around the world, whose mission is to promote and advance the microbial sciences. We connect with millions of experts and harness their science to serve humanity to solve the world's most pressing problems, including channeling the power of microbes to support American innovation and biomanufacturing.

DOE-Funded Research Spurs Innovation and Supports the Growing Bioeconomy 

In order to maintain U.S. competitiveness and unleash innovation in emerging technologies, we ask Congress to allocate at least $9.5 billion for the DOE Office of Science. The Office of Science is a leader in research for the advancement of science and technology innovation, including biotechnology. The Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program within the Office of Science supports research into scalable engineering and environmental mechanisms that use microbes to solve the energy and environmental problems we face in the 21st Century. This includes understanding the systems biology of plants and microbes as they respond to and modify their environments and harnessing microbes to support the bioeconomy. We ask Congress to continue support into microbial systems within these divisions to support the early-stage research needed to produce renewable fuels, chemicals and materials that benefit all Americans. 

ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿appreciates that Congress has funded the Bioenergy Research Centers (BRC) to support research into viable and sustainable domestic biofuel and bioproducts industries. Each of the centers is led by a DOE national laboratory or university and takes an innovative approach to improving and scaling up advanced biofuel and bioproduct production processes. BRCs conduct fundamental research in plant and microbial systems biology, biological imaging analysis and genomics to accelerate research and development of advanced biofuels, bioenergy materials and products that are produced from a variety of regionally diverse feedstocks. Sustained funding for the BRCs will allow existing and additional centers to continue the development of viable and sustainable domestic biofuels and bioproducts derived from non-food plant biomass, such as poplar, switchgrass and sorghum. Support for this research and development will bring jobs to rural areas and boost our energy security.

The 4 Bioenergy Research Centers promote innovation by conducting fundamental research to develop new technologies, improving existing processes and fostering partnerships with industry to commercialize these innovations. They focus on creating cost-effective, sustainable biofuel production, from optimizing feedstocks to developing advanced conversion technologies. The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (University of Wisconsin-Madison in partnership with Michigan State University), the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), the Center for Bioenergy Innovation (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) and the Joint BioEnergy Institute (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) recently reached a milestone by registering more than 1,000 inventions in their shared mission to support a vibrant domestic bioeconomy. These inventions include the production of plant-based pharmaceuticals and plastics, effective and affordable organic fungicides and helping build more resilient and productive crops. We ask that Congress continue to support this important initiative to facilitate the transition of research findings into practical applications. 

Congress must make investments in storing, sharing and standardizing biological data to maintain U.S. leadership in biotechnology in the age of artificial intelligence. The Office of Science is a leader in scientific computing and data infrastructure. The Joint Genome Institute at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory provides integrated high-throughput sequencing, DNA design and synthesis, metabolomics and computational analysis to the research community to enable studies of complex biological and environmental systems. Thanks to investments from Congress, the National Microbiome Data Collective, part of the Joint Genome Institute, provides a standardized platform for storing and sharing microbiome data and training for the scientific community on using and analyzing data. The National Microbiome Data Collaborative works to support a Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) microbiome data-sharing network to remove the bottleneck for data analysis to facilitate the discovery of new insights into fundamental biological processes and accelerate advancements in microbiome research. Microbiome research leads to a better understanding and the development of targeted therapies for a wide range of diseases, as well as the creation of innovative biotechnology products. Without these investments, U.S. global leadership in biotechnology is at risk.
 
The final report of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology recommended establishing Centers of Biotechnology within the National Laboratories to support critical R&D infrastructure for emerging biotechnology and encourage high-risk, high-reward biotechnology research projects. These Centers will also provide academic and industry partners with much needed access to expensive resources and instrumentation to support their innovative research. ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿supports adoption of and funding for this recommendation.

Conclusion

Our nation’s ability to make significant advances in science and technology innovation depends on advances in the microbial sciences. This will only be possible if Congress continues its commitment to robust and sustained funding increases for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science at $9.5 billion in FY26. This includes prioritization of the microbial sciences within the Biological and Environmental Research program and support for the Joint Genome Institute and the National Microbiome Data Collaborative.