PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

Anyone with a contract or subcontract with the Department of Energy who breaks the Department’s rules about protecting classified or sensitive information can be fined up to $100,000 for each violation. Contracts must also include clauses that reduce the contractor’s fees or payments if the contractor or its employees fail to protect that information. Those clauses must list levels of wrongdoing and the fee cut for each level. The usual rules and limits for DOE civil penalties apply here, with one specific exception. For certain named entities, penalties can’t be imposed until they sign a new or extended contract, and yearly fines for them cannot exceed what the Department paid them that year.

Title 42, §2282b

The Public Health and Welfare, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Persons subject to penalty

Any person who has entered into a contract or agreement with the Department of Energy, or a subcontract or subagreement thereto, and who violates (or whose employee violates) any applicable rule, regulation, or order prescribed or otherwise issued by the Secretary pursuant to this chapter relating to the safeguarding or security of Restricted Data or other classified or sensitive information shall be subject to a civil penalty of not to exceed $100,000 for each such violation.

(b)Fee or payment reductions for violations

The Secretary shall include in each contract with a contractor of the Department provisions which provide an appropriate reduction in the fees or amounts paid to the contractor under the contract in the event of a violation by the contractor or contractor employee of any rule, regulation, or order relating to the safeguarding or security of Restricted Data or other classified or sensitive information. The provisions shall specify various degrees of violations and the amount of the reduction attributable to each degree of violation.

(c)Powers and limitations

The powers and limitations applicable to the assessment of civil penalties under section 2282a of this title, except for subsection (d) of that section, shall apply to the assessment of civil penalties under this section.

(d)Application to certain entities

In the case of an entity specified in subsection (d) of section 2282a of this title—

(1)the assessment of any civil penalty under subsection (a) against that entity may not be made until the entity enters into a new contract with the Department of Energy or an extension of a current contract with the Department; and

(2)the total amount of civil penalties under subsection (a) in a fiscal year may not exceed the total amount of fees paid by the Department of Energy to that entity in that fiscal year.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This chapter, referred to in subsec. (a), was in the original “this Act”, meaning act Aug. 1, 1946, ch. 724, as added by act Aug. 30, 1954, ch. 1073, § 1, 68 Stat. 919, known as the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, which is classified principally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 2011 of this title and Tables.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Pub. L. 106–65, div. C, title XXXI, § 3147(b), Oct. 5, 1999, 113 Stat. 938, provided that: “Subsection a. of section 234B of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 [42 U.S.C. 2282b(a)], as added by subsection (a), applies to any violation after the date of the enactment of this Act [Oct. 5, 1999].”

§2282b Civil Monetary Penalties for Violations of Department of Energy Regulations Regarding Security of Classified or Sensitive Information or Data