Federal government funds new heat-from-earth research for five years.
S. 4406 — Next-Generation Geothermal Research and Development Act · Filed by Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Apr 28, 2026 · Reported out
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill gives $5 million per year through 2031 for research. It sets up a center to lead heat-from-earth work. The U.S. Geological Survey must map heat resources nationwide. The Department of Energy will support deep drilling projects. Federal offices will share data with each other.
Who it affects
Research groups, schools, and heat-from-earth companies get grants. Citizens may get more clean power in the future.
One thing to notice
The bill funds research into methods not yet proven at large scale. A water report is due in five years, but no rules limit water use.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Apr 28, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 28, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Sep 30, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 3 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $290,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 4 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 61% of bills with any report.
Catherine Cortez Masto, who sponsored the bill, received $298,634 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, Inc. — $260,000 in 1 report
- Climate Innovation Action — $30,000 in 1 report
- Capitol Counsel, LLC on Behalf of Climate Innovation Action — $0 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- U.S. Geological Survey — Federal office that studies rocks, minerals, and natural resources.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (19,666 characters) on Jun 3, 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 Jun 2026 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 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal government funds new heat-from-earth research for five years.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s4406/simple Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.