Union Calendar No. 288
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 1432
[Report No. 103–484, Parts I and II]
A BILL
To establish missions for Department of Energy re-
search and development laboratories, provide for
the evaluation of laboratory effectiveness in ac-
complishing such missions, and reorganize and
consolidate Department of Energy technology
transfer activities, and for other purposes.
MAY 19, 1994
Reported from the Committee on Science, Space, and
Technology with an amendment, committed to the
Committee of the Whole House on the State of the
Union, and ordered to be printed
IB
Union Calendar No. 288
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 1432
[Report No. 103–484, Parts I and II]
To establish missions for Department of Energy research and development
laboratories, provide for the evaluation of laboratory effectiveness in
accomplishing such missions, and reorganize and consolidate Department
of Energy technology transfer activities, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 23, 1993
Mr. BROWN of California (for himself, Mrs. LLOYD, Mr. VALENTINE, Mr.
BOUCHER, and Mr. WYDEN) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred jointly to the Committees on Science, Space, and Technology and
Armed Services
SEPTEMBER 15, 1993
Additional sponsors: Mr. BACCHUS of Florida, Mr. INSLEE, Ms. FURSE, Mr.
WAXMAN, Mr. MILLER of California, Ms. PELOSI, Mr. DELLUMS, Ms.
ESHOO, and Mr. SCOTT
APRIL 26, 1994
Reported from the Committee on Armed Services with an amendment
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
MAY 19, 1994
Additional sponsors: Ms. WOOLSEY and Mr. MINETA
MAY 19, 1994
Reported from the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology with an
amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union, and ordered to be printed
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in boldface roman]
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on March 23, 1993]
A BILL
To establish missions for Department of Energy research
and development laboratories, provide for the evaluation
of laboratory effectiveness in accomplishing such mis-
sions, and reorganize and consolidate Department of
Energy technology transfer activities, 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 ‘‘Department of Energy
Laboratory Technology Act of 1994’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that—
(1) the Department of Energy maintains an ex-
tensive system of laboratories which represent a na-
tional resource, comprised of a dedicated, multi-dis-
ciplinary work force of scientists and engineers, so-
phisticated scientific instrumentation, and unique re-
search facilities;
(2) the end of the Cold War has significantly re-
duced the Nation’s requirements for nuclear weapons
systems development and production, but the depart-
mental laboratories retain a vital national security
mission to maintain the Nation’s confidence in the
safety, security, and reliability of the nuclear stock-
pile and to support verification of arms control agree-
ments, dismantlement of weapons, nonproliferation
and counterproliferation efforts, intelligence require-
ments, work for the Department of Defense, and other
national security requirements;
(3) the United States faces serious national secu-
rity, energy, economic, and environmental challenges
toward which the resources of departmental labora-
tories could be applied in a more concerted fashion;
(4) in order to contribute to United States eco-
nomic competitiveness and maintain the core com-
petencies required to meet national security require-
ments, departmental laboratories will need to cooper-
ate with industry, State and local governments, uni-
versities, and nonprofit organizations on a broader
scale;
(5) the legislative and bureaucratic frameworks
for cooperative efforts between departmental labora-
tories and industry, State and local governments,
universities, and nonprofit organizations should be
streamlined to facilitate partnerships;
(6) departmental laboratories’ interaction with
industry goes beyond the movement of technologies de-
veloped at the laboratories to industry, State and
local governments, universities, and nonprofit organi-
zations; it has included and should continue to in-
clude a two-way flow of ideas, people, knowledge, and
intellectual property, whereby partnerships provide
benefits to the laboratory as well as to the
nonlaboratory partners;
(7) independent reviews of departmental labora-
tories over the past two decades uniformly have em-
phasized the importance of maintaining well defined
missions at these laboratories, in order to provide co-
herence, direction, and the basis for performance eval-
uation;
(8) as the missions of departmental laboratories,
and other Federal laboratories, change in response to
evolving national needs, the activities of these labora-
tories should be coordinated and evaluated to the
maximum extent practicable in order to ensure that
they are meeting their intended objectives; and
(9) the National Science and Technology Coun-
cil, which is chaired by the President, is responsible
for coordinating the science and technology policy
making process and for integrating the President’s
science and technology policy agenda across the Fed-
eral Government, and should serve to coordinate ac-
tivities at the Federal laboratories and to ensure the
ciency, conservation, and renewable energy pro-
duction.
(B) To conduct basic research in energy-re-
lated science and technology and in the fun-
damental understanding of matter, including
construction and operation of unique scientific
instruments and facilities for use by the Federal
Government, academia, industry, and other ap-
propriate non-Federal institutions.
(3) To carry out research and development for
the purpose of minimizing the environmental impacts
of the production and use of energy and materials, in-
cluding missions as follows:
(A) To develop generic, precompetitive tech-
nologies aimed at reducing the generation of haz-
ardous or nonhazardous waste or pollution, or
reducing the consumption of energy or materials,
while contributing to sustainable United States
economic growth.
(B) To develop technologies and techniques
for the safe disposal of hazardous waste or radio-
active waste in order to accelerate the schedule
of, and reduce the total cost of, cleaning up the
hazardous waste sites associated with nuclear
weapons production and other programs funded
by the Department.
(b) ADDITIONAL MISSIONS.—The Department is au-
thorized to pursue additional missions at departmental lab-
oratories beyond those identified in subsection (a) only—
(1) if such missions are assigned to the Depart-
ment by the President, and only to the extent that—
(A) such laboratories possess substantial
technical capabilities that can be devoted to such
missions;
(B) such additional mission activities do
not interfere with the pursuit of the missions
identified in subsection (a); and
(C) involvement in such additional mission
activities is coordinated with any other Federal
agency or agencies which carry out such mission
activities, as appropriate; or
(2) if such missions have been established by
statute enacted before the date of enactment of this
Act, and do not conflict with the missions established
under this section.
(c) TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER.—(1)(A) Except as pro-
vided in subparagraph (B), the Department is authorized
to use program funds at the departmental laboratories for
technology transfer activities, whenever those activities are
consistent with and further an assigned mission of the de-
partmental laboratory.
(B) Not more than 20 percent of funds made available
to the Department in any fiscal year for weapons activities
for research and development may be set aside for the tech-
nology transfer initiative described in the President’s budg-
et for weapons activities for that fiscal year.
(2) The Secretary shall—
(A) work with all Assistant Secretaries, Office
directors, and other Department officials with respon-
sibilities for managing research and development pro-
grams to ensure that technology transfer consider-
ations are fully integrated into the planning and con-
duct of all research and development conducted at de-
partmental laboratories;
(B) develop and issue departmental policies for
technology transfer activities, with the goal of creat-
ing a stable and consistent policy framework for de-
partmental collaborations with private industry,
State or local governments, universities, or nonprofit
organizations; and
(C) oversee the management and allocation of
Department funding for technology transfer activities
to ensure that such funding is available to all depart-
mental laboratories without distinction as to whether
the laboratory is involved in defense or nondefense ac-
tivities.
(3) Funds authorized to be appropriated to the Depart-
ment of Energy and made available for laboratory-directed
research and development shall be available for advancing
generic, precompetitive research and development activities
at the departmental laboratory to the point of providing
the potential basis for technology transfer.
(d) EDUCATION.—The Department is authorized to use
scientific, technical, and human resources at the depart-
mental laboratories to support the national goal of improv-
ing the quality of science, mathematics, and engineering
education in the United States.
SEC. 5. EVALUATION.
The Secretary shall, for each departmental labora-
tory—
(1) assign a mission or missions consistent with
section 4(a) and (b);
(2) establish goals in each mission area against
which the performance of the departmental laboratory
will be evaluated;
(3) develop a technology transfer plan with spe-
cific objectives for collaborative efforts between the lab-
oratory and private industry, State or local govern-
ments, universities, or nonprofit organizations in
order to coordinate, direct, and enhance the impact of
such collaborations, based on the core intellectual and
technical competencies of the laboratory;
(4) ensure that for each new technology transfer
project and for each ongoing technology transfer
project, technical milestones, an estimate of the dura-
tion of the project, and an estimate of the total cost
of the project are established;
(5) regularly assess the degree to which goals and
objectives established pursuant to paragraphs (2) and
(3) have been achieved, in terms of performance, im-
pact, or accomplishments, employing evaluative pro-
cedures and methods specific and appropriate to each
mission area; and
(6) include in the Secretary’s annual report to
Congress required under section 657 of the Depart-
ment of Energy Organization Act—
(A) a statement of missions and goals for
the departmental laboratory assigned or estab-
lished pursuant to paragraphs (1) and (2);
(B) an explanation for any proposed modi-
fications in the mission or missions for the de-
partmental laboratory;
(C) the technology transfer plan required
under paragraph (3);
(D) for any technology transfer project in-
volving a Federal commitment of $500,000 or
more—
(i) the technical and financial data
called for in paragraph (4); and
(ii) technical and financial variances
from the original estimates as called for in
paragraph (4); and
(E) the assessment required under para-
graph (5), along with a statement of any
planned, ongoing, or completed actions based on
this assessment.
SEC. 6. REPORT ON FUTURE USE OF DEPARTMENTAL LAB-
ORATORIES.
(a) REQUIREMENT.—The Secretary, in coordination
with the Secretary of Defense and other appropriate Federal
officers, shall submit to Congress within 6 months after the
date of enactment of this Act, a report on the future use
of the departmental laboratories.
(b) ALTERNATIVES.—Such report shall identify and
examine the costs and benefits of alternatives to the current
mission assignments, budgets, and management structures
of the departmental laboratories. The alternatives examined
should be those which seek to enhance the laboratories’ con-
tribution to United States basic science or economic com-
petitiveness while maintaining the laboratories’ abilities to
perform their assigned missions.
(c) PRESERVATION
OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS COM-
PETENCIES.—Such report shall identify and examine ways
to ensure that the Nation preserves the core intellectual and
technical competencies of the United States in nuclear
weapons, including weapons design, system integration,
manufacturing, security, use control, reliability assessment,
and certification, and shall include an identification of any
existing or anticipated deficiencies in retaining trained
personnel in such areas.
(d) COST REDUCTION OPTIONS.—Such report shall
identify and examine options for reducing the cost of the
Department’s nuclear weapons research, development, engi-
neering, and test-related programs by eliminating any un-
necessary redundancies between the departmental defense
laboratories, including options that maintain a process of
peer review by more than one laboratory for nuclear weap-
ons design activities and options that eliminate such review
process. The report should assess feasibility, costs, and risks
for each identified option. Costs to be identified and exam-
ined should include both cost savings due to consolidation
and conversion costs, including an assessment of work force
retraining and environmental cleanup.
SEC. 7. INDUSTRIAL ADVICE.
(a) ADVICE TO SECRETARY.—The Secretary shall seek
advice from representatives of United States industry, and
of educational institutions and professional and technical
societies in the United States, who have experience in the
industrial sector, and may establish within the Department
an advisory board to provide the Secretary with advice re-
garding the Department’s activities aimed at collaborating
with industry in the areas of research, technology develop-
ment, and technology transfer.
(b) ADVICE TO DEPARTMENTAL LABORATORY DIREC-
TORS.—The director of each departmental laboratory shall
seek advice from representatives of United States industry,
and of educational institutions and professional and tech-
nical societies in the United States, who have experience
in the industrial sector, and may establish an advisory
group, to assist such director in—
(1) integrating technology transfer consider-
ations into the planning and performance evaluation
of laboratory research and development activities;
(2) evaluating new initiatives proposed by the
departmental laboratory and identifying opportuni-
ties for collaborative efforts with United States indus-
try based on those initiatives; and
(3) evaluating the long-term direction of ongoing
programs at the departmental laboratory from the
perspective of United States industry.
(c) USE OF EXISTING BOARDS.—The Secretary or the
director of a departmental laboratory may utilize existing
advisory boards to achieve the purposes of this section.
SEC. 8. AMENDMENTS TO STEVENSON-WYDLER TECH-
NOLOGY INNOVATION ACT OF 1980.
Section 12 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Inno-
vation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3710a) is amended—
(1) in subsection (a), by inserting after para-
graph (2) the following:
‘‘The head of any agency using the authority given it under
paragraph (1) to enter into cooperative research and devel-
opment agreements shall make all reasonable efforts to expe-
dite the negotiation, processing, and approval of such agree-
ments.’’; and
(2) in subsection (c)(5)—
(A) by amending subparagraph (C)(i) to
read as follows:
‘‘(C)(i) Except as provided in subparagraphs (D) and
(E), any agency which has contracted with a non-Federal
entity to operate a laboratory shall review and approve, re-
quest specific modifications to, or disapprove a joint work
statement and cooperative research and development agree-
ment that is submitted by the director of such laboratory
within 30 days after such submission. In any case in which
such an agency disapproves or requests the modification of
a joint work statement or cooperative research and develop-
ment agreement submitted under this section, the agency
shall promptly transmit a written explanation of such dis-
approval or modification to the director of the laboratory
concerned. In any case where an agency has requested spe-
cific modifications to a joint work statement or cooperative
research and development agreement, the agency shall ap-
prove or disapprove any resubmission of such joint work
statement or cooperative research and development agree-
ment within 15 days after resubmission. No agreement may
be entered into by a Government-owned, contractor-operated
laboratory under this section before approval of both the co-
operative research and development agreement and a joint
work statement.’’;
(B) by striking clauses (ii), (iv), and (vi) of
subparagraph (C);
(C) by redesignating clauses (iii) and (v) as
clauses (ii) and (iv), respectively;
(D) by inserting after subparagraph (C)(ii)
the following new clause:
‘‘(iii) Any cooperative research and development agree-
ment involving a Federal commitment of $500,000 or more
shall contain technical milestones and other appropriate
performance goals and evaluation criteria, with an antici-
pated schedule for meeting such milestones, goals, and cri-
teria. Each sponsoring Federal agency shall conduct appro-
priate reviews of the work performed within such coopera-
tive research and development agreement to determine
whether such agreements are meeting established milestones,
require modification, or warrant termination.’’;
(E) in subparagraph (C)(iv), as so redesig-
nated by subparagraph (C) of this paragraph—
(i) by striking ‘‘under clause (iv) with-
in’’ and inserting in lieu thereof ‘‘of a coop-
erative research and development agreement
under clause (i) within’’;
(ii) by striking ‘‘successive 30-day pe-
riod’’ and inserting in lieu thereof ‘‘succes-
sive 10-day period’’; and
(iii) by striking ‘‘under clause (iv).’’
and inserting in lieu thereof ‘‘under clause
(i).’’;
(F) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as
subparagraph (E); and
(G) by inserting after subparagraph (C) the
following new subparagraph:
‘‘(D)(i) A Federal agency may permit the director of
any of its Government-owned, contractor-operated labora-
tories to enter into a cooperative research and development
agreement involving a Federal commitment of $500,000 or
less, whenever that activity is consistent with and furthers
an assigned mission of the laboratory, without the specific
approval of the agency for the cooperative research and de-
velopment agreement.
‘‘(ii) A laboratory director who is granted authority
by a Federal agency to enter into a cooperative research
and development agreement pursuant to clause (i) shall,
upon request, provide the Federal agency with an expla-
nation of how the agreement will complement and contrib-
ute to the laboratory’s missions and activities.’’.
SEC. 9. NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIP AWARD.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary is authorized to
establish a National Technology Partnership Award for
presentation to private sector or Federal Government orga-
nizations or individuals which have substantially benefited
the economic or social well-being of the United States
through public sector-private sector collaboration involving
technology development or technology transfer, and which
as a consequence are deserving of special recognition.
(b) FUNDING.—The Secretary is authorized to seek and
accept gifts from public and private sources to carry out
not been specifically authorized by stat-
ute.
The Secretary shall annually update and re-
submit the report required by this paragraph,
as part of the report required under section
15 of the Federal Nonnuclear Energy Re-
search and Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C.
5914).
(2) The Secretary shall, after completion
of the preliminary design phase of a major
construction project, submit to the Congress
a report containing—
(A) an estimate of the total cost of
construction of the facility;
(B) an estimate of the time required
to complete construction;
(C) an estimate of the annual operat-
ing costs of the facility;
(D) the intended useful operating life
of the facility; and
(E) an identification of any existing
facilities to be closed as a result of the
operation of the facility.
(c) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sec-
tion—