I

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1510

To prohibit the Department of Energy from acting as the agency of implementation, with respect to nondefense Department of Energy laboratories,

for certain environmental, safety, and health regulations, and to require

reduction in personnel at such laboratories.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 7, 1995

Mr. ROEMER (for himself, Mr. DOYLE, Mr. JACOBS, and Mr. KLUG)

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science

A BILL

To prohibit the Department of Energy from acting as the

agency of implementation, with respect to nondefense

Department of Energy laboratories, for certain environmental, safety, and health regulations, and to require

reduction in personnel at such laboratories.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Department of Energy

5 Laboratories Efficiency Improvement Act’’.
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1 SEC. 2. ELIMINATION OF SELF-REGULATION.

2 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the De3 partment of Energy shall not be the agency of implemen4 tation, with respect to departmental laboratories, other

5 than departmental defense laboratories, of Federal, State,

6 and local environmental, safety, and health rules, regula7 tions, orders, and standards.

8 SEC. 3. PERSONNEL REDUCTIONS.

9 (a) REQUIREMENTS.—The aggregate number of indi10 viduals employed at all government-owned, contractor-op11 erated departmental laboratories, other than departmental

12 defense laboratories, shall be reduced, within 10 years

13 after the date of the enactment of this Act, by at least

14 one-third from the number so employed as of such date

15 of enactment. At least 1 percent of such reduction shall

16 be accomplished within 1 year, at least 3 percent within

17 2 years, at least 6 percent within 3 years, at least 10 per18 cent within 4 years, and at least 15 percent within 5 years.

19 (b) OBJECTIVES.—The Secretary of Energy shall en20 sure that the personnel reductions required by subsection

21 (a) are made consistent with, to the extent feasible, the

22 following objectives:

23 (1) Termination of departmental laboratory re24 search and development facilities that are not the

25 most advanced and the most relevant to the pro-
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1 grammatic objectives of the Department, when com2 pared with other facilities in the United States.

3 (2) Termination of facilities that provide re4 search opportunities duplicating those afforded by

5 other facilities in the United States, or in foreign

6 countries when United States scientists are provided

7 access to such facilities to the extent necessary to

8 accomplish the programmatic objectives of the De9 partment.

10 (3) Relocation and consolidation of depart11 mental laboratory research and development activi12 ties, consistent with the programmatic objectives of

13 the Department, within laboratories with major fa14 cilities or demonstrable concentrations of expertise

15 appropriate for performing such research and devel16 opment activities.

17 (4) Reduction of management inefficiencies

18 within the Department and the departmental labora19 tories.

20 (5) Reduction of physical infrastructure needs.

21 (6) Utilization of other resources for performing

22 Department of Energy funded research and develop23 ment activities, including universities, industrial lab24 oratories, and others.
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1 SEC. 4. REPORTS TO CONGRESS.

2 (a) INITIAL REPORT.—Within 1 year after the date

3 of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall

4 transmit a report to the Congress that—

5 (1) identifies the extent to which Department of

6 Energy and departmental laboratory staffs have

7 been reduced as a result of the implementation of

8 section 2 of this Act; and

9 (2) explains the extent to which reductions re10 quired by section 3(a) have been made consistent

11 with the objectives set forth in section 3(b).

12 (b) ANNUAL REPORTS.—The Secretary of Energy

13 shall transmit to the Congress, along with each of the

14 President’s annual budget submissions occurring—

15 (1) after the report under subsection (a) is

16 transmitted; and

17 (2) before the full personnel reduction require18 ment under section 3 is accomplished,

19 a report containing the explanation described in subsection

20 (a)(2) of this section.

21 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

22 For purposes of this Act—

23 (1) the term ‘‘departmental laboratory’’ means

24 a Federal laboratory, or any other laboratory or fa25 cility designated by the Secretary of Energy, oper26 ated by or on behalf of the Department of Energy;
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1 (2) the term ‘‘departmental defense labora2 tories’’ means the Lawrence Livermore National

3 Laboratory, the Los Alamos National Laboratory,

4 and the Sandia National Laboratories;

5 (3) the term ‘‘Federal laboratory’’ has the

6 meaning given the term ‘‘laboratory’’ in section

7 12(d)(2) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Inno8 vation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3710a(d)(2)); and

9 (4) the term ‘‘programmatic objectives of the

10 Department’’ means the goals and milestones of the

11 Department of Energy, as set forth in departmental

12 strategic planning documents and the President’s

13 annual budget requests.

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