Members of Congress looking to eliminate waste and redundancy from the federal government received some powerful news last week from the Department of Energy’s inspector general.

 

IG Gregory Friedman issued a report that makes a strong case for overhauling the Energy Department’s Cold War-era system of laboratories and research. He pointed out that barely half of the $10.4 billion the department spends annually to operate its 16 laboratories (Federally Funded Research and Development Centers) goes toward actual research, with almost 40% paying for “support costs.” This includes “executive direction, human resources, procurement, legal, safeguards and security, utilities, logistics support and information services.”

 

The IG called this ratio “out of sync.”

 

Currently, the Energy Department has at least 23 total labs, including three centers working on nuclear weapons research, two for Navy propulsion reactors, five for energy technology and 13 for general science. Most of the labs are operated by contractors, including corporations and universities.

 

“The department’s research complex is organized essentially as it has been for over a half-century,” reads Friedman’s report, which notes that the current structure grew out of the World War II-era Manhattan Project and the subsequent Cold War.

 

Friedman advised that an independent panel be set up to examine ways of consolidating the labs.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Report Calls for Changes in the Energy Department (by Matthew L. Wald, New York Times)

Management Challenges at the Department of Energy (Department of Energy, Inspector General) (pdf)