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FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News
Number 85: July 1, 2003

Domenici Opens Series of Hearings on DOE Lab Management

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici
(R-NM) has opened a series of hearings on the management of the
Department of Energy's national laboratories.  While somewhat
reminiscent of the hearings held a few years ago on lab management,
the June 24 hearing had none of the fireworks that marked earlier
inquiries.

Said Domenici, "My committee is holding these hearings to explore
DOE lab management as a whole and to address specific issues that
need to be considered as DOE prepares to compete management
contracts for the Los Alamos lab, and eventually, the
Lawrence-Livermore lab."  Invited to testify were John Peoples, Jr.,
Director Emeritus of Fermilab; Sig Hecker, Senior Fellow at Los
Alamos National Laboratory; Herman Postma, former Director of
Oakridge National Laboratory; and Martha Krebs, President of Science
Strategies and former director of the DOE Office of Science.  The
hearing follows a DOE announcement made two months ago that the Los
Alamos operating contract will be open to competitive bidding in
2005.  The University of California has managed this lab since its
establishment sixty years ago.

Addressing the witnesses and his fellow committee members (in
attendance were Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Lamar Alexander
(R-TN), and Larry Craig (R-ID)), Domenici spoke of the "need to
optimize the relationship" between the labs and DOE.  He
characterized the criteria used by DOE to enter into or extend
current management contracts as "extremely vague."  Domenici added
that "there have been many studies noting that increased micro
management of the labs, much of it in the name of providing
increased accountability, has greatly complicated the ability of
laboratory scientists and engineers to deliver on their critical
national missions."

In his testimony, Postma described the relationship between DOE and
its laboratories over the last sixty years as "fundamentally sound,"
saying that the GOCO structure (government-owned,
contractor-operated) "has served the country very well."  Krebs said
that  "since the creation of the department there has been
well-meaning, often unintentional, but ultimately and unfortunately,
benign neglect on the part of the internal and external programmatic
sponsors of the laboratories."  She called for a clear statement
from congressional committees "of what the laboratories' M&O
[maintenance and operations] contracts should be . . . for the next
30  years."  Hecker lamented how the original partnership between
the government and the laboratories has changed in response to
public criticism and "intense congressional pressure."  "It's also
become more difficult to nurture world class science, to deal with
the risks of nuclear operations and to provide a buffer from the
political pressures, as well as to provide the continuity that's
necessary for stewardship."  Merely competing or changing the
contractors will not solve the underlying problem, Hecker said.
Peoples told the committee "that partnership can be made to work  .
. . I think that the future of these laboratories is with the GOCO
concept."

Issues raised during the question-and-answer session included
contract continuity, difficulties in the extension process, what
Bingaman said was "bias toward competing these contacts," the
circumstances under which the decision was made to compete the Los
Alamos contract, university "culture" and government procedures, and
the contractor assessment process.  The next hearing is scheduled
for July 17.

###############
Richard M. Jones
Media and Government Relations Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi{at}aip.org    http://www.aip.org/gov
(301) 209-3094
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