March 17, 2014

BROAD STUDY ON ‘EFFECTIVENESS’ OF NAT’L LABS MANDATED IN OMNIBUS BILL

By ExchangeMonitor

The omnibus spending package unveiled earlier this week by Congressional appropriators preserves Senate-drafted language that would create a broad-ranging Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories. The nine-member panel would be chosen by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz from a list of 18 qualified officials picked by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The commission is expected to have a broad mandate, as language in the bill tasks it to examine whether the national laboratories are properly aligned with DOE strategic goals, are not “unnecessarily redundant and duplicative,” effectively support current and future national security challenges, are sized correctly, and provide a benefit to other government agencies.

The commission is also expected to weigh in on whether there are “opportunities to more effectively and efficiently use the capabilities of the national laboratories, including consolidation and realignment, reducing overhead costs, reevaluating governance models using industrial and academic bench marks for comparison, and assessing the impact of DOE’s oversight and management approach.” The language suggests the panel should examine using other research, development and technology centers and universities as an alternative to the labs. The effectiveness of the Laboratory-Directed Research and Development programs at the labs is also expected to be analyzed. The commission’s report is due by Feb. 1, 2015.

The bill also includes language requiring DOE to commission a study on security management reform. The language calls for the study to be conducted by a “respected independent organization with expertise in defense and security matters, such as the Institute for Defense Analyses.” The scope of the review would include options for federalizing the Department’s protective forces “and provide recommendations on organizational models for securing the Department’s sites with Category I special nuclear materials that might improve security effectiveness and reduce cost,” according to the bill. The report is due 180 days after the bill is enacted.

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