House Gets Ready to Vote on DOE Lab Bill - Maybe

Legislation redefining the missions of the Department of Energy’s national laboratories is working its way to the floor of the House of Representatives. Two House committees - Science, Space, and Technology, and Armed Services -have completed work on H.R. 1432. There are now reports that the House Energy and Commerce Committee may also want a hand in shaping the bill, injecting uncertainty into the schedule.

The post Cold War missions of DOE’s laboratories, including the Sandia, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Livermore weapons labs, would be changed under the provisions of H.R. 1432, the Department of Energy Laboratory Technology Act. DOE has 30 R&D facilities with approximately 56,000 employees, budgeted at over $6.5 billion annually. This bill was introduced by science committee chairman George Brown (D-California) a year ago, and was the subject of several hearings. The Senate completed its work on similar legislation last fall, which was ultimately deleted in the defense bill conference committee.

Disputes over the laboratories’ new missions, among other factors, delayed House action. Brown’s original bill would have consolidated and converted the laboratories, and identified nuclear weapons work as only one of eight missions. That approach was rejected by defense-minded members on both the science and armed services subcommittees who drafted the final House legislation. As now written, H.R. 1432 identifies three missions. The first is maintaining national security, including advancing science and technology, naval propulsion programs, arms dismantlement, controlling nuclear proliferation, and verification technologies. The second mission targets energy production and use, including energy efficiency, conservation, renewables, and fundamental research. The third mission centers on mitigation of environmental impacts of energy production and utilization, waste remediation technologies, and “green” technologies. Other missions could be added.

Also included in H.R. 1432 are technology transfer and precompetitive R&D provisions, as well as language on improving math, science, and engineering education. In addition, the DOE Secretary would be required to assign missions, establish goals, produce a technology transfer plan, develop performance milestones, perform assessments, and provide reports on each laboratory. An over-all report on the future use of the laboratories would be required within six months of the bill’s enactment (such a review is already underway.) Advice from the industrial sector in this planning process is mandated. In the final version of the bill, technology transfer is now an authorized activity, as opposed to Brown’s original version which would have made it a mission. The amount of weapons research and development money which can be spent on technology transfer is restricted to 20%.

Other provisions of this legislation encourage Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) and establish a National Technology Partnership Award. The president is required to prepare a review of the national laboratories, working through the National Science and Technology Council and the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Technology.

Three Republican members of the science committee plan to offer amendments to the bill when it reaches the House floor. The first, by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (New York) would restrict how termination funds for the Superconducting Super Collider could be spent. Discussion over this amendment was intense during the science committee mark-up of the legislation. A second amendment, to be offered by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (Maryland), calls for the establishment of an independent commission to determine if laboratories should be closed or reconfigured. Rep. Robert Walker (Pennsylvania) will offer an amendment that would require DOE to recoup financial aid provided to businesses that market successful products or processes.

Yet to be seen is the degree to which House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Michigan) becomes involved in the process. In May, 1993, Dingell held a hearing at which he castigated DOE for being “among the worst” in its contracting practices. After passage on the House floor, differences between the House and Senate version of H.R. 1432 will have to be resolved before it is finally sent to the President.