§7139 Office of Science; Establishment; Appointment of Director; Compensation; Duties

Summary

Creates an Office of Science inside the Department and puts a Director in charge. The President must pick the Director and the Senate must approve. The Director is paid at the rate for Executive Schedule level IV under section 5315 of title 5. The Director must advise the Secretary about research moved from the Energy Research and Development Administration, watch for duplicate or missing energy research, help manage multipurpose labs (but not nuclear weapons labs), guide training and education for research, advise on grants and other funding for research, and do other duties the Secretary gives. The Office’s job is to deliver scientific discoveries, new capabilities, and major scientific tools to improve understanding of nature and to strengthen U.S. energy, the economy, and national security. The Director must build, run, and maintain user facilities to support that mission. As much as possible, those facilities should serve the Department, industry, universities, and others to help Department goals, U.S. competitiveness, public health and safety, and other national priorities including emergencies. The Secretary must make sure the Office’s work is coordinated with other Department programs, that basic research feeds applied work, that programs work together, and that coordination happens with other federal agencies when appropriate. The Director must coordinate Office programs and require programs without a recent future-planning roadmap to complete one consistent with funding under the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act.