§17131 Training Federal Contracting Officers to Negotiate Energy Efficiency Contracts

Summary

The Secretary must create and run a training program in the Federal Energy Management Program. The program will teach federal contract negotiators and managers how to negotiate energy savings performance contracts, make timely and effective contracts with companies that offer energy-efficiency services, and check all federal contracts for chances to save energy or cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Secretary must plan, staff, announce, and start the training within 1 year after December 19, 2007. Appropriate staff will be sent from the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department, the General Services Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the United States Postal Service, and other federal agencies that make building- or energy-related contracts. Trainers can be experienced agency attorneys or contract officers (the Secretary will pay their salaries and expenses if they are not Department employees) or private experts who are not also working for companies that have federal energy-efficiency contracts. Up to $750,000 is authorized each year for fiscal years 2008 through 2012 to carry out the program.