Congress appears close to restoring the $100 million in funding for hydrogen research that Steven Chu, the energy secretary, had cut from his budget in May.

The House of Representatives voted 320-97 last Friday to approve $26.9 billion for the Energy Department, including $153 million for hydrogen and fuel cells in the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program, plus $40.45 million for hydrogen from coal.

The Senate Appropriations Committee was even more bullish on hydrogen, approving $190 million for the program. Reconciliation of the two budget figures (assuming the full Senate leaves the $190 million intact) could result in a final amount greater than the $168 million for fuel cells in the 2009 Energy Department budget.

It is uncertain when the Senate will vote on hydrogen funding. Robert Rose, executive director of the United States Fuel Cell Council, said he hoped a vote would occur in the next two weeks before the Senate’s scheduled recess in early August.

“We’re encouraged,” said Patrick Serfass, a spokesman for the National Hydrogen Association. “Congress has shown that it is very well educated about these technologies. It sees the benefits of hydrogen and fuel cells, and understands we need to pursue a portfolio of technologies, not just one or two. Frankly, it’s too early to choose.”

Mr. Serfass added that the proposed budget contained no cuts for battery manufacturing or research, “and the fuel-cell community thinks that’s a good thing. But you can’t design a family-sized long-range vehicle with just batteries — you need something else, and we think that something else is hydrogen fuel cells.”

In May, Mr. Chu argued for cutting hydrogen funding because the technology seemed to be always decades away from reaching the market.

“We asked ourselves,” Mr. Chu said at the time, “‘Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will convert to a hydrogen car economy?’ The answer, we felt, was ‘no.’ ”

But according to Larry Burns, General Motor’s retiring fuel-cell champion, cutting hydrogen funding would hurt American car companies.

“Japan and Germany are moving forward with their government-funded programs,” he said in a recent interview. “This is strategically important. Do we want to wake up five years from now and say, ‘What happened to us?’ ”

On Monday, Toyota told Ward’s Auto (via Autoblog Green) that its first production hydrogen vehicle in 2015 would be priced low enough to “shock” the industry. Economies of scale will bring costs down, the company said.