§16298c National Energy Technology Laboratory reforms

Summary

The Director may hire up to 10 special full‑time workers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory without using the usual civil service hiring rules. These hires can serve up to 3 years and must have either advanced science or engineering training or a business background to help move technology to market. Their basic pay can be set up to level II of the Executive Schedule under section 5313 of title 5. The Director can also pay extra bonuses, but those extra payments in any 12‑month period cannot be more than the smallest of $25,000, 25 percent of the employee’s yearly basic pay, or the limit under section 5307(a)(1) of title 5. Starting in fiscal year 2021, the Laboratory can get laboratory‑directed research and development (LDRD) money. Each year the Secretary may put into a special fund for LDRD an amount up to the same rate used for the National Laboratories. That fund is only for LDRD, is run by the Secretary, does not expire, and is not subject to appropriation. The Director must run LDRD work under Department of Energy Order 413.2C (August 2, 2018) or its successor. Each year the Secretary must report to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives about how this authority was used. The Secretary must give the Director control of the Laboratory’s human resources operations. Within 2 years after December 27, 2020, the Secretary must send those same committees a report reviewing the Lab’s science and management, the effectiveness of the hiring and LDRD rules, and any policy or legislative recommendations.