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 agree-
ments 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 re-
ferred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 
A BILL 
To make funds available to the Department of Energy Na-
tional Laboratories for the Federal share of cooperative 
research and development agreements that support ma-
turing Laboratory technology and transferring it to the 
private sector, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cooperative Research 
and Development Fund Authorization Act of 2017’’. 
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SEC. 2. COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 
FUND. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Energy shall 
make funds available to Department of Energy National 
Laboratories for the Federal share of cooperative research 
and development agreements that support maturing lab-
oratory technology and transferring it to the private sec-
tor. 
(b) APPORTIONMENT.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—The Secretary of Energy 
shall determine the apportionment of such funds to 
each Department of Energy National Laboratory 
and shall ensure that special consideration is given 
to small business firms and consortia involving small 
business firms in the selection process for which co-
operative research and development agreements will 
receive such funds. 
(2) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term 
‘‘small business firm’’ has the meaning given such 
term in section 4 of the Stevenson-Wydler Tech-
nology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3703). 
(c) PERFORMANCE
EVALUATION
METRICS.—The 
Secretary of Energy shall ensure that the performance 
evaluation metrics of each National Laboratory operating 
contractor provide incentives for, and measure the effec-
tiveness of, the contractor’s cooperative research and de-
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velopment agreement program at maturing laboratory 
technology and transferring it to the private sector. 
(d) REPORTING.— 
(1) REQUIREMENT.—The Secretary of Energy 
shall annually transmit to Congress a report that de-
scribes how funds were expended under this section, 
including a description of— 
(A) the types and sizes of non-Federal en-
tities that participated in cooperative research 
and development agreements receiving funds 
under this section; and 
(B) the economic benefits resulting from 
cooperative research and development agree-
ments that received funds under this section in 
previous years. 
(2) CONSOLIDATION OF REPORTS.—Reports re-
quired under this subsection may be consolidated 
with other related reports required from the Sec-
retary. 
(e) SAVINGS PROVISION.—Nothing in this section 
shall be construed to preclude or limit the use of funding 
provided under other authority of law for entering into or 
increasing the Federal share of cooperative research and 
development agreements, either in combination with fund-
ing provided under this section or separately. 
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(f) AUTHORIZATION
OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of En-
ergy to carry out this section $20,000,000 for each of the 
fiscal years 2018 through 2022. 
Æ 
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