DOE DEPUTY SECRETARY SUGGESTS CHANGES COMING TO SECURITY OVERSIGHT

As the Department of Energy begins moving forward with a new reorganization effort, Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman gave one of the strong indications to date yesterday that changes may be in store for the Department’s Office of Health, Safety and Security. There has been speculation in recent weeks that new DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz is considering breaking up HSS into separate safety and security functions. In his prepared testimony before the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee yesterday, Poneman said DOE plans to make “organizational and management changes” once it completes an internal review into security issues now underway, though he did not go into specific detail.

Poneman told the panel, “In recent months, we have been engaged in a thorough review of our security management—not just within NNSA or at the labs, but enterprise-wide—including delegation of authority and responsibility, contracting, performance measurement and ultimate accountability. We are undertaking this assessment deliberately, and I want to assure the Committee that we are working on this issue, and plan to adopt organizational and management changes when we conclude our internal review.”  A DOE official said after the hearing that it is “premature” to say what the results of the security review may be or what changes may result.