I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4596 

To make funds available to the Department of Energy National Laboratories 

for the Federal share of cooperative research and development agreements that support maturing Laboratory technology and transferring 

it to the private sector, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 7, 2017 

Mr. BEN RAY LUJA ́N of New Mexico (for himself and Ms. MICHELLE LUJAN

GRISHAM of New Mexico) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 

A BILL 

To make funds available to the Department of Energy National Laboratories for the Federal share of cooperative 

research and development agreements that support maturing Laboratory technology and transferring it to the 

private sector, and for other purposes. 

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 ‘‘Cooperative Research 

5 and Development Fund Authorization Act of 2017’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 

2 FUND. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Energy shall 

4 make funds available to Department of Energy National 

5 Laboratories for the Federal share of cooperative research 

6 and development agreements that support maturing lab7 oratory technology and transferring it to the private sec8 tor. 

9 (b) APPORTIONMENT.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Energy 

11 shall determine the apportionment of such funds to 

12 each Department of Energy National Laboratory 

13 and shall ensure that special consideration is given 

14 to small business firms and consortia involving small 

15 business firms in the selection process for which co16 operative research and development agreements will 

17 receive such funds. 

18 (2) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term 

19 ‘‘small business firm’’ has the meaning given such 

20 term in section 4 of the Stevenson-Wydler Tech21 nology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3703). 

22 (c) PERFORMANCE EVALUATION METRICS.—The 

23 Secretary of Energy shall ensure that the performance 

24 evaluation metrics of each National Laboratory operating 

25 contractor provide incentives for, and measure the effec26 tiveness of, the contractor’s cooperative research and deVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:33 Dec 13, 2017 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4596.IH H4596

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1 velopment agreement program at maturing laboratory 

2 technology and transferring it to the private sector. 

3 (d) REPORTING.— 

4 (1) REQUIREMENT.—The Secretary of Energy 

5 shall annually transmit to Congress a report that de6 scribes how funds were expended under this section, 

7 including a description of— 

8 (A) the types and sizes of non-Federal en9 tities that participated in cooperative research 

10 and development agreements receiving funds 

11 under this section; and 

12 (B) the economic benefits resulting from 

13 cooperative research and development agree14 ments that received funds under this section in 

15 previous years. 

16 (2) CONSOLIDATION OF REPORTS.—Reports re17 quired under this subsection may be consolidated 

18 with other related reports required from the Sec19 retary. 

20 (e) SAVINGS PROVISION.—Nothing in this section 

21 shall be construed to preclude or limit the use of funding 

22 provided under other authority of law for entering into or 

23 increasing the Federal share of cooperative research and 

24 development agreements, either in combination with fund25 ing provided under this section or separately. 


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1 (f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

2 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of En3 ergy to carry out this section $20,000,000 for each of the 

4 fiscal years 2018 through 2022. 

Æ 


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