Two top officials at the U.S. Energy Department, including one with responsibility for the Office of Environmental Management (EM), are scheduled to testify Tuesday at a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee hearing on DOE management and priorities.
Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar and Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes are the only two witnesses listed for the hearing, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in Rayburn House Office Building Room 2318.
DOE’s $6.5 billion environmental cleanup program now reports to Dabbar, who heads the Office of Science. During a reorganization announced in December, Energy Secretary Rick Perry moved EM to the science office from the Office of the Undersecretary for Management and Performance.
The department’s Office of Legacy Management, which oversees completed Cold War cleanup sites, likewise moved into the Office of Science. The long-rumored revamp left the National Nuclear Security Administration basically unchanged.
During a Jan. 9 House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on DOE modernization, Dabbar said the technical expertise at the Office of Science should make it a natural home for EM.
The purpose of the upcoming Science Committee hearing will be to review the new DOE reorganization and gauge its potential impact “on civilian research, development, demonstration, and commercial application programs,” according to a document posted on the committee’s website.
The hearing is scheduled to kick off at about the same time the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee plans to vote on the nomination of Anne Marie White to be assistant secretary of energy for environmental management. The Senate panel is also expected to vote on the nomination of Melissa F. Burnison as assistant secretary of energy for congressional and intergovernmental affairs.
