Congress·In Committee·H.R. 6981

SHINE Act of 2026

Home Energy: Faster Permits for Solar and EV Chargers

Jan 8·View on Congress.gov·Read full text

This bill is one vehicle in a longer effort. See the full story across every version.View effort →

Next up: A house committeeNo action in 6 months

The SHINE Act of 2026 is currently sitting in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Nothing has happened with this bill since it was referred to the committee in January 2026, which means it has been stalled for five months. The bill will not move forward unless the committee decides to take action on it.

Legislative Progress

House

Senate

President

Law

Could go either way

The bill has support from both parties and addresses a common problem for homeowners, but it still needs to compete for time on the busy House schedule.

How we got here

This bill’s path across every version that has carried it.

Reintroduced
Reintroduced from H.R. 5997 (118th), which died when its Congress ended.
H.R. 5997 (118th) →

Key Points

This bill creates a voluntary online system to help local governments approve permits for home energy projects faster. It covers things like solar panels, small wind turbines, home batteries, and electric vehicle chargers.
Local governments that choose to use the new system could receive technical training and financial prizes. The goal is to replace slow paperwork with a digital process that is the same across different cities and counties.
The Department of Energy would also test new ways to handle safety inspections. This could include using video calls for remote inspections or doing fewer checks for installers who have a history of high-quality work.
This plan is voluntary, so cities and towns can decide for themselves if they want to use the new tools. It aims to lower the cost of home energy upgrades by reducing the time and paperwork needed to get started.
The bill would provide $20 million each year from 2027 to 2030 to pay for the program. This money would fund the online platform and help local officials learn how to use it.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.

Milestones

2 milestones2 actions

Jan 8, 2026House

Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Jan 8, 2026

Introduced in House

The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.

No votes or news coverage recorded for this bill yet.

Source Information

Document Type

Congressional Bill

Official Title

SHINE Act of 2026

Bill NumberHR 6981

Congress119th Congress

ChamberHouse of Representatives

Latest ActionReferred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Data Sources

Congress.gov

Official legislative information

Read Full Bill Text

Sponsor

Cosponsors

(3)

D: 1R: 2

Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.