[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1510 Introduced in House (IH)]







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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Department of Energy Laboratories 
Efficiency Improvement Act''.

SEC. 2. ELIMINATION OF SELF-REGULATION.

    Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Department of 
Energy shall not be the agency of implementation, with respect to 
departmental laboratories, other than departmental defense 
laboratories, of Federal, State, and local environmental, safety, and 
health rules, regulations, orders, and standards.

SEC. 3. PERSONNEL REDUCTIONS.

    (a) Requirements.--The aggregate number of individuals employed at 
all government-owned, contractor-operated departmental laboratories, 
other than departmental defense laboratories, shall be reduced, within 
10 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, by at least one-
third from the number so employed as of such date of enactment. At 
least 1 percent of such reduction shall be accomplished within 1 year, 
at least 3 percent within 2 years, at least 6 percent within 3 years, 
at least 10 percent within 4 years, and at least 15 percent within 5 
years.
    (b) Objectives.--The Secretary of Energy shall ensure that the 
personnel reductions required by subsection (a) are made consistent 
with, to the extent feasible, the following objectives:
            (1) Termination of departmental laboratory research and 
        development facilities that are not the most advanced and the 
        most relevant to the programmatic objectives of the Department, 
        when compared with other facilities in the United States.
            (2) Termination of facilities that provide research 
        opportunities duplicating those afforded by other facilities in 
        the United States, or in foreign countries when United States 
        scientists are provided access to such facilities to the extent 
        necessary to accomplish the programmatic objectives of the 
        Department.
            (3) Relocation and consolidation of departmental laboratory 
        research and development activities, consistent with the 
        programmatic objectives of the Department, within laboratories 
        with major facilities or demonstrable concentrations of 
        expertise appropriate for performing such research and 
        development activities.
            (4) Reduction of management inefficiencies within the 
        Department and the departmental laboratories.
            (5) Reduction of physical infrastructure needs.
            (6) Utilization of other resources for performing 
        Department of Energy funded research and development 
        activities, including universities, industrial laboratories, 
        and others.

SEC. 4. REPORTS TO CONGRESS.

    (a) Initial Report.--Within 1 year after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall transmit a report to the 
Congress that--
            (1) identifies the extent to which Department of Energy and 
        departmental laboratory staffs have been reduced as a result of 
        the implementation of section 2 of this Act; and
            (2) explains the extent to which reductions required by 
        section 3(a) have been made consistent with the objectives set 
        forth in section 3(b).
    (b) Annual Reports.--The Secretary of Energy shall transmit to the 
Congress, along with each of the President's annual budget submissions 
occurring--
            (1) after the report under subsection (a) is transmitted; 
        and
            (2) before the full personnel reduction requirement under 
        section 3 is accomplished,
a report containing the explanation described in subsection (a)(2) of 
this section.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    For purposes of this Act--
            (1) the term ``departmental laboratory'' means a Federal 
        laboratory, or any other laboratory or facility designated by 
        the Secretary of Energy, operated by or on behalf of the 
        Department of Energy;
            (2) the term ``departmental defense laboratories'' means 
        the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Los Alamos 
        National Laboratory, and the Sandia National Laboratories;
            (3) the term ``Federal laboratory'' has the meaning given 
        the term ``laboratory'' in section 12(d)(2) of the Stevenson-
        Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 
        3710a(d)(2)); and
            (4) the term ``programmatic objectives of the Department'' 
        means the goals and milestones of the Department of Energy, as 
        set forth in departmental strategic planning documents and the 
        President's annual budget requests.
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