Congress funds solar power for community health centers serving the poor
H.R. 6281 — CHARGE Act of 2025 · Filed by Adam Smith (D-WA) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Nov 21, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill directs the Department of Energy to create a $50 million grant program (2026–2030) to help Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) install solar panels and battery storage systems. Eligible applicants include state/local governments, the health centers themselves, nonprofit organizations representing them, and consortia they control. Grants can fund installation or technical assistance only.
Why we flagged it
The bill is a straightforward appropriation and grant-program authorization aimed at deploying renewable energy and storage at community health centers serving vulnerable populations. It is a targeted public-health and clean-energy measure with no hidden mechanisms or narrow beneficiaries.
What the text implies
- Grant recipients (state/local governments, nonprofits, consortia) may pass funds to private solar installers and battery manufacturers as contractors, creating indirect private-sector benefit; however, the underlying public purpose (FQHC resilience and cost reduction) remains primary.
- FQHCs gaining energy independence may reduce their operational vulnerability to grid failures, improving continuity of care for vulnerable populations during climate events or infrastructure disruptions.
- The bill does not mandate that FQHCs pass energy savings to patients or cap their use of savings, leaving allocation of benefits to individual health center governance.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill funds renewable energy and storage infrastructure at health centers serving low-income and underserved populations, reducing operating costs that can be redirected to patient care, improving grid resilience during outages, and advancing clean energy adoption. No restrictions on citizens' rights or protections are imposed.
Who stands to gain
- solar panel manufacturers and installers
- battery/energy storage manufacturers and installers
- engineering and technical consulting firms
- Federally Qualified Health Centers (as infrastructure recipients)
Named in the bill
Department of Energy, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), State and local governments, Nonprofit organizations, Provider consortia, Internal Revenue Code Section 48E, Social Security Act Section 1905(2)
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 3 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Nov 21, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Nov 21, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $40,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 4 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Adam Smith, the sponsor, reported $612,574 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Blue Green Alliance — $40,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 16, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,090 characters) on Aug 24, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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