The Department of Energy (DOE) is preparing new guidance, reporting documents, working groups, and long-term plans in response to the recommendations of the Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories (CRENEL), a congressionally mandated group of experts that identified a broken relationship between the federal government and its national labs.
In a late 2015 report, CRENEL recommended a series of reforms to relieve the labs of bureaucratic burdens. The report suggested DOE oversee programs at the highest level and allow the labs to handle the implementation of the policy without the delays of departmental approvals at each step. It also suggested the labs be given greater flexibility to manage budgets and worker compensation, implement site assessments autonomously, and avoid a tedious approval process for public-private collaborations.
The DOE said in a response document released this week that based on CRENEL’s assessment that “oversight by DOE has grown increasingly transactional rather than strategically mission-driven,” one of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz’s priorities has been to improve the federal-laboratory relationship. The DOE lab complex consists of 17 national laboratories that support nuclear-arms and other programs for the department and other government agencies, as well as the private sector.
The DOE said it will help Congress review the labs “by promoting greater transparency with Congress and the taxpayer.” To do this, beginning this year it will provide an annual report to Congress on the state of the laboratory system that will outline the national labs’ key initiatives, highlight DOE challenges and successes in oversight, and provide an update on the department’s actions in response to CRENEL’s recommendations, the report said.
To clarify roles and responsibilities in the national lab complex, the DOE said a laboratory operations board working group will this year complete a DOE/Laboratory Management Framework document that will identify management principles necessary for DOE leadership to implement. The report also said the NNSA will take actions to improve governance and oversight of field operations at its sites by clarifying the roles of personnel at the field offices and at headquarters.
The DOE said it has begun to address CRENEL’s recommendation to improve laboratory planning and evaluation by establishing a laboratory planning working group “to create a framework for consistent laboratory planning processes.” Part of this process will include a focus on revitalizing laboratory infrastructure and improving project management, the report said. The labs are developing infrastructure planning processes annually that will eventually yield a 10-year maintenance and recapitalization plan to reduce deferred maintenance – currently at a $3.7 billion backlog – remove excess facilities, and offer proposals for the construction of new facilities, it said.
The DOE said that in an effort to maintain the expertise of research staff at the labs, it will establish a best practices process in this fiscal year to help the facilities “improve the flow of outcomes” from the Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program to lab missions. This year, an NNSA-led working group will create an electronic forum to share best practices, and the agency will release an LDRD highlights document, the report said.
According to the report, the NNSA has also taken into account feedback from the management and operating (M&O) contractor community to develop a procurement strategy guide featuring “contract structure and incentive guidance” for future contract competitions. “This new contracting strategy will identify the appropriate application of incentive and fixed fee for NNSA contracts when the procurement for those contracts arise,” DOE said.
