Once again, vested interests fighting innovation. No business ever funds its competitor. Since the trans-nationals control the US govt you’ll never see ingenious ideas like this developed until after WW III, by the survivors, if any. We’ve long known that in the CF/LENR field : new concepts in energy get you either ignored or whacked.
My experience has been that guvmint employees jealously guard their prerogative to fund what THEY want. I suspect Bussard lobbied some pols and got pressure applied to civil servants. When something like this happens I apply the Occam’s Razor Principle of Government, i.e., if stupidity and incompetence explain the results, that is the most likely explanation.