Having already shifted the Energy Department’s Cold War cleanup office to a different undersecretary, the Donald Trump administration isn’t finished yet in remodeling DOE, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was told Thursday.
The administration wants to make the Energy Department more efficient and better able to carry out core missions, including “addressing the obligation of legacy management and nuclear waste,” said Bernard McNamee, executive director of DOE’s Office of Policy.
In December 2017 Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced plans to shift the Office of Environmental Management to the Office for the Undersecretary of Science, from the Office for the Undersecretary of Management and Performance, which is no longer a top-line box under the energy secretary.
The same December reorganization effort saw the administration launch its new Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER).
In June the administration issued a policy document calling for a dramatic reshaping of the federal bureaucracy, “Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century: Reform Plan and Reorganization Recommendations.”
Streamlining the Environmental Management office’s headquarters operation is one of the second-tier proposals for the Energy Department – behind elimination of Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), and selling off federal electric transmission assets, such as the Bonneville Power Administration.
While Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she was opposed to eliminating ARPA-E, and Ranking Democrat, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) voiced opposition to selling BPA, the environmental cleanup office provision didn’t garner any attention from the committee.
McNamee declined to speak to the press after the hearing. The June report said “EM will specifically review supervisor-to-worker ratios, skill gaps, and cost reduction measures such as consolidating facilities and reducing administrative support.”
In response to a question from Murkowski, McNamee stressed DOE’s strong opposition to Section 3111 of the Fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act bill, which would strip authority over the National Nuclear Security Administration from the secretary of energy.
Sources have also said Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White may have set up a committee to look a potential restructuring issues within the cleanup office. Since White became EM-1 at the end of March, Angela Watmore has become acting chief of staff. Also, Ken Picha has taken over as acting EM associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations.
The Thursday event was an oversight hearing and senators noted some of the changes sought by the administration would need congressional approval.
