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David KlausDeputy Under Secretary for Management & PerformanceOffice of the Under Secretary for Management & Performance
Paul BoscoDirectorOffice of Acquisition and Project Management
Rod TurkChief Information Security OfficerOffice of the Chief Information Officer
Mark WhitneyPrincipal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environmental ManagementOffice of Environmental Management
FY 14-15: Agency Priority Goal
Increase the focus on efficient and effective management across the DOE enterprise and improve performance in the areas of environmental cleanup, construction project management, and cybersecurity.
Priority Goal
Goal Overview
Overview of the Environmental Management part of the goal:
The Department and its predecessor agencies generated radioactive liquid waste as a by-product of the production of nuclear weapons. The EM Program has an estimated 88 million gallons of highly radioactive waste from the legacy of the Cold War stored in 239 tanks at Idaho, the Savannah River Site and the Office of River Protection. By reducing and disposing of the liquid waste tank wastes, EM is demonstrating tangible evidence of the program's goal to reduce the highest risks in the complex. By eliminating high-risk material, corresponding life-cycle cost reductions are achieved for an activity that is a major cost driver to the EM program.
Management and removal of legacy Transuranic (TRU) waste across the EM complex directly supports risk reduction and the goal of reducing the EM site footprint. The EM Program also coordinates with all DOE sites that generate transuranic waste to retrieve, repackage, characterize, ship, and dispose of transuranic waste resulting in cleaning up sites, reducing risks, and decreasing the Department’s nuclear footprint.
Challenges for meeting EM’s Agency Priority Goal (the retrieval of tank waste, closing waste tanks and disposing of transuranic waste) include designing, building, starting up, and operating complex, hazardous, and unique nuclear facilities. These facilities include the Waste Treatment Plant in Hanford, Washington; the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at Idaho National Laboratory; and the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Successful completion of these cleanup goals depends on overcoming technical, quality assurance, schedule, regulatory, and management challenges. The Department will leverage past experience, applying best practices and lessons learned; identify, develop, and deploy practical technological solutions; and look for innovative and sustainable practices that make cleanup more efficient.
Overview of the Project Management goal:
The Department of Energy (DOE) is the largest civilian contracting agency in the Federal Government and spends approximately 95% of its annual budget on contracts to operate its scientific laboratories, engineering and production facilities, and environmental restoration sites and to acquire capital assets. The Department has been challenged, both externally and internally, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its contract and project management processes. The Department remains committed to making continuous improvements in contract and project management performance.
DOE has been on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) High-Risk List since 1990. During the past several years, the Department has launched and completed several initiatives to address its challenges including a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and associated Corrective Action Plan (CAP) in 2008, Contract and Project Management Summit-related corrective actions, and issuance of several Deputy Secretary policy directives. Many measurable improvements have been implemented resulting from these efforts to include: improving front-end planning by requiring sufficient design maturity prior to establishing performance baselines; defining required project staff-size and required skill-set across the project lifecycle and enhancing training and qualifications of project and contract management personnel; stabilizing project funding and affordability by adhering to baseline funding profiles for incrementally funded projects in annual budget requests; strengthening DOE Order 413.3B inclusive of new independent cost estimating requirements at Critical Decision (CD) gateways; deploying a new and more robust Project Assessment and Reporting System (PARS II), which allows for direct upload of contractor project performance data; and implementing Project Peer Reviews, a best practice successfully employed by the Office of Science, across the Department to better monitor project development and execution and foster sharing of design, procurement and construction lessons learned.
Based on the Department’s progress, GAO narrowed the scope of the high-risk designation in 2009, removing the Office of Science and focusing on the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Office of Environmental Management (EM). GAO issued a scorecard with five criteria for removing all DOE programs from the High-Risk List:
- Demonstrate strong commitment and leadership;
- Demonstrate progress in implementing corrective measures;
- Develop a corrective action plan that identifies root causes, effective solutions, and a near-term plan for implementing the solutions;
- Have the capacity (people and resources) to resolve problems; and
- Monitor and independently validate the effectiveness and sustainability of corrective measures.
GAO acknowledged the Department met the first three of these criteria in February 2011. In GAO’s February 2013 High-Risk List update, GAO acknowledged the Department’s continuing improvement in contract and project management by shifting the focus of DOE’s high-risk designation to major contracts and projects executed by NNSA and EM with values of $750 million or greater.
Progress toward achieving this goal, project success, is tracked in the Department’s Project Assessment and Reporting System (PARS II) and reported to Program Offices, GAO and OMB on a quarterly basis.
Overview of the JC3 part of the goal:
The Joint Cybersecurity Center (JC3) is a Departmental enterprise asset designed to improve information sharing and coordinated incident response for all cybersecurity events. Accordingly the DOE Chief Information Officer (CIO) is responsible for developing and maintaining the Department’s overall cybersecurity strategy in coordination with the Undersecretaries of Science & Energy, Nuclear Security, and Management & Performance.
Strategies
Strategies for the Environmental Management part of the goal:
The following factors present the strongest impacts to the overall achievement of the program’s strategic goal involving the disposing of transuranic waste:
- Availability of shipping assets (containers, tractors, trailers and drivers) for the shipment of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
- Delivery of the remote-handled transuranic waste acceptance criteria
The two regulatory drivers for the goal to dispose of transuranic waste come from Idaho National Laboratory in and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Idaho Settlement Agreement established a target that all transuranic waste and alpha contaminated low-level waste would be out of the State of Idaho by end of calendar year 2015. Also, as a result of the recent wildfires, the Department and the State of New Mexico have reprioritized some activities at Los Alamos National Laboratory to ensure the highest risk of stored transuranic waste to be addressed in an expedited manner.
Strategy for the JC3 part of the goal:
The JC3 program office is developing the following strategy for the JC3 program.
-Expand the current JC3 cyber situational awareness and incident response capabilities throughout the DOE enterprise. Current capabilities are at selected sites within DOE.
See the "Next Steps" field for the implementation plan for the Project Management part of the goal.
Progress Update
Progress Update for the Environmental Management part of the goal:
At the end of the fourth quarter of FY 2015, the EM program is expected to disposition a cumulative total of 100,016 cubic meters of combined Remote Handled and Contact Handled Transuranic Waste in addition to any TRU waste that was characterized and disposed as Low Level Waste or Mixed Low Level Waste. At the end of the fourth quarter FY 2015, the EM program EM Program has been targeting to close two additional tanks for a cumulative total of 15 liquid waste tanks closed.
- At the end of the fourth quarter of FY 2015, the EM program dispositioned a cumulative total of 102,026 cubic meters of combined Remote Handled and Contact Handled Transuranic Waste which included TRU waste that was characterized and disposed as Low Level Waste or Mixed Low Level Waste.
- Did not meet final goal. Transuranic waste dispositioned: Waste that is removed from a site's transuranic (TRU) waste inventory (i.e., waste that is currently managed at the site as transuranic waste) through the following methods:
* Shipped from the site to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for disposal as TRU waste;
* Removed from the TRU waste inventory by some other means (e.g., re-characterization and disposal as waste other than TRU waste or otherwise dispositioned such as being shipped to another site for further characterization and/or repackaging for ultimate disposal). Including both remote-handled and contact-handled TRU waste.
Therefore, any TRU waste that is currently in inventory that has been characterized as LLW or MLLW and disposed at an approved LLW/MLLW site is counted as completed.
[This LLW/MLLW disposal may be the NNSS Site, Energy Solutions, or an approved operating on-site disposal cell). Any remaining TRU waste that has been fully processed and characterized that is waiting to be sent to WIPP for final disposal is NOT counted in the cumulative actual reported.
- Did not meet final goal. Transuranic waste dispositioned: Waste that is removed from a site's transuranic (TRU) waste inventory (i.e., waste that is currently managed at the site as transuranic waste) through the following methods:
- At the end of the fourth quarter FY 2015, the EM program EM Program has closed one additional tanks for a cumulative total of 14 liquid waste tanks closed. Did not meet final goal.
Progress Update for the Project Management part of the goal:
The Department is managing some of the largest, most complex, and technically challenging projects in the public or private sector. Many are first-of-a-kind, one-of-a-kind projects that involve the risks and challenges of nuclear operations.
The GAO narrowed its high risk list to EM’s and NNSA’s major contracts and projects over $750 million. The Department remains focused on continuous improvement in contract and project management and being removed from GAO’s list entirely in the future. This will not be easy as the Department continues to struggle on implementing corrective actions on its largest legacy projects which were initiated prior to the overhaul of DOE’s project management governance structure and development of corrective actions.
The Department’s project management governance structure and processes comport with industry best practices. Together, they have produced significant improvement in the Department’s ability to deliver non-major system projects (projects less than $750M). Experience since 2008 has shown that the process and policy improvements made to manage the non-major projects in our portfolio are applicable and scalable to our largest projects. With focused leadership, proper implementation and oversight, and accountability, these processes and policies can improve major system project delivery.
Did not meet annual target. 78% of 90% achieved. Performance to be addressed at Secretarial-level Project Management Risk Committee
Q4 FY15 Milestones:
- Prepare for factual accuracy review a DOE Earned Value Management System Interpretation Handbook.
-
Status: Complete. The Office of Project Management Oversight and Assessments (PMOA) developed an Interpretation Handbook that consolidates the necessary elements from existing Earned Value Management (EVM) body of knowledge documents into a single source for EVM interpretation within DOE to ensure consistency of expectations, implementation, and assessment.
Progress Update for the JC3 part of the goal:
The Department achieved full operational capability of the Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center (JC3), including Top-Secret/Special Compartmented Information operations, by the end of FY15.
During the 4th Quarter of FY15, the JC3 Program Management Office (PMO) completed a budget review and submitted an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Exhibit 300.
The JC3 PMO commenced projects for automation of the incident response and notification workflows. The JC3 PMO completed an update to the JC3 Gap Analysis and submitted as part of the FY15 OMB submission. The JC3 Gap Analysis informs the JC3 leadership of a baseline description of cybersecurity operations and functions.
Q4 FY15 Milestones
- Update the JC3 Gap Analysis and submitted it as part of the OMB 300 update. Completed
- Update the Risk Management Plan and submitted it as part of the OMB 300 update. Completed
- Draft an Investment Level Alternative Analysis & Cost-Benefit Analysis for submission for OMB 300. Completed
- Draft an Operational Analysis for submission with the OMB 300. Completed
- Continue Capital Planning Investment Control reporting. Completed
- Draft FY17 budget proposal. Completed
- Submit approved JC3 Program Management Plan and JC3 Scope documents for
Chief Information Officer (CIO) signature. (New CIO, Michael Johnson, came into office during this time, there is a new review/approve process. Waiting for feedback). In progress - Continue testing and evaluating the selected ticketing system. Completed
- Broaden two existing cybersecurity services (DOE Enhanced Cybersecurity Services (DEX) and Cyber Fed Model (CFM) for more extensive coverage of the Department of Energy Enterprise networks. (DEX is ongoing, but in the next quarter will begin planning for transition to Einstein 3A). Completed
- Kick-off meeting for Intelligence Community Content Locator Examination Analysis & Reporting (IC-CLEAR) project/pilot. Completed
- Continue Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) reporting for JC3 system. On-going
- Conduct research and submit a draft of the Cloud Risk Management white paper. Under evaluation
- Continue DOE Enterprise reporting of cyber events and incidents. On-going
- Meet with Working Capital Fund for quarterly review. Completed
- Draft and submit the Initial JC3 Annual Report for management review. Completed
- Complete and submit FY16 Spend Plan. Completed
- Reconcile FY15 Spend Plan. Completed
- Create project plans for gaps identified in the JC3 Gap Analysis. In progress
- Continue Novetta Cybersecurity Analytics pilot. On-going
Next Steps
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Performance Indicators
Waste Tanks Closed
Transuranic Waste Dispositioned
Project Success
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
Contributing Programs and Other Factors for the Environmental Management part of the goal:
Environmental Management
The Office of Environmental Management (EM) supports the Department’s Strategic Plan to continue cleanup of radioactive and chemical waste resulting from the Manhattan Project and Cold War activities. The EM program was established in 1989 and is responsible for the cleanup of millions of gallons of liquid radioactive waste, thousands of tons of spent (used) nuclear fuel and special nuclear material, disposition of large volumes of transuranic and mixed/low-level waste, huge quantities of contaminated soil and water, and deactivation and decommissioning of thousands of excess facilities. This is the largest environmental cleanup program in the world brought about from five decades of nuclear weapons development and production and Government-sponsored nuclear energy research. It involves some of the most dangerous materials known to humankind.
In carrying out the program’s cleanup mission, EM performs a variety of collaborative activities. A key component for EM work involves Regulatory Compliance, which is discussed below:
• Regulatory Compliance: DOE negotiates and executes environmental compliance and cleanup agreements with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state regulatory agencies, as well as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as appropriate. Key parameters such as required cleanup levels and milestones must be negotiated with the appropriate regulators and stakeholders for each site. Compliance with environmental laws and agreements continues to be a major cost driver for the EM program.
Contributing Programs and Other Factors for the Project Management part of the goal:
Internal
Office of Management - The Office of Management (MA) provides the Department of Energy (DOE) with centralized direction and oversight for the full range of management, procurement, and administrative services. MA’s activities include project and contract management, policy development and oversight, and delivery of procurement services to DOE Headquarters organizations. Administrative activities include the management of Headquarters facilities and the delivery of other services critical to the operation of the Department. MA also fulfills the statutory responsibilities of the Chief Acquisition Officer and the Director of the Office of Acquisition and Project Management, who serves as DOE’s Senior Procurement Executive.
Office of Acquisition and Project Management - This office validates the project performance baselines, to include scope, cost and schedule, of all of the Department’s largest construction and environmental clean-up projects prior to budget request to Congress; an active project portfolio totaling over $30 billion. This Office also provides policy, guidance and oversight for contract, project and property management, procurement and financial assistance, professional development of the Acquisition workforce, and contractor compensation, benefit pension, and risk management programs.
Program Offices with capital projects, including Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Environmental Management, Fossil Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Nuclear Energy, Science
National Laboratories
Management and Operating (M&O) Contractors
Energy Facility Contractors Group
Project Management Career Development Program
Acquisition Career Management Program
Project Management Governance Boards
External
Office of Management and Budget
Office of Federal Procurement Policy
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
Environmental Protection Agency
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
National Defense Industrial Association
State and Local Governments
Community Advisory Boards
Native American Tribes
Environmental Groups
Contractors, Vendors and Suppliers
Universities and Research Institutions
Contributing Programs and Other Factors for the JC3 part of the goal:
Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO):
Ensures that information technology (IT) is acquired and information resources are managed in a manner that complies with statutory requirements, and Administration policies and procedures. The CIO is responsible for IT performance management, investment management, acquisition, security, and policy at the Department.
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA):
The NNSA Office of the Chief Information Officer’s (NCIO) focus is to continue providing superior information management support to current operations while implementing the NNSA Network Vision (2NV) Strategy and NNSA Classified Network Vision (C2NV) and the Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center (JC3) with the DOE CIO.
National Laboratories:
The National Laboratories provide nationally recognized expertise in information security and network science and develop novel solutions to address the rapidly-evolving needs of the cybersecurity community. JC3’s collaboration with the national laboratories has allowed the program to: identify intelligence needs, implement operational security capabilities, protect information technology assets and integrate various cybersecurity systems that provide tactical capabilities.
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Strategic Goals
Strategic Goal:
Management and Performance
Statement:
Position the Department of Energy to meet the challenges of the 21st century and the nation’s Manhattan Project and Cold War legacy responsibilities by employing effective management and refining operational and support capabilities to pursue departmental missions
Strategic Objectives
Statement:
Continue cleanup of radioactive and chemical waste resulting from the Manhattan Project and Cold War activities
Description:
DOE has been working for nearly 25 years to clean up the radioactive and chemical contamination left by six decades of weapons production and energy research during the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. While much has been completed, some of the highest risk and most technically complex work still lies ahead. The challenges include designing, building, starting up, and operating complex, hazardous, and unique nuclear facilities. These facilities include the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant in Hanford, Washington; the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at Idaho National Laboratory; and the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Successful cleanup depends on overcoming technical, quality assurance, schedule, regulatory, and management challenges. The Department will leverage past experience, applying best practices and lessons learned; identify, develop, and deploy practical technological solutions derived from scientific research at the national laboratories; and look for innovative and sustainable practices that make cleanup more efficient.
Statement:
Manage assets in a sustainable manner that supports the DOE mission
Description:
Investment in world-class physical assets will continue, from brick and mortar facilities to cutting edge technology systems, to enable the United States to remain a world leader in scientific and technological advances. Sites and laboratories will address current and future use of land and facilities including sustainable operations and post-closure responsibilities. DOE efforts to operate more efficiently, perform cleanup, and address post-closure responsibilities are resulting in sites and laboratories with a smaller footprints and more efficient and effective infrastructure. Mission objectives, energy efficiency, and sustainability principles will drive decisions on capital infrastructure, real property, and information technology. This includes planning, divestiture, acquisition, and sharing of assets with other governments, communities, academia, and industry; supporting conveyance and reuse of unneeded land and facilities; and performing long-term surveillance and maintenance of legacy sites.
Statement:
Effectively manage projects, financial assistance agreements, contracts, and contractor performance
Description:
Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of DOE’s financial assistance agreements, contract and project management performance remains a top priority. These efforts are central to delivering mission critical facilities and capabilities on time and within original budget. Contract provisions are being incorporated into contracts that will enhance the oversight of contractor cost and technical performance systems and ensure contractors are not rewarded unless performance standards and requirements are met. The use of small business vehicles and strategic sourcing for both federal and contractor management and operating procurements will be expanded.
Statement:
Operate the DOE enterprise safely, securely, and efficiently
Description:
The employees of DOE are its strongest asset. When employees’ health and safety are protected and they are well trained, empowered, and free from discrimination, they will ensure mission success efficiently and effectively. DOE is entrusted with a unique mission to protect the nation’s federal nuclear industrial operations, and thus holds a special responsibility to maintain oversight of the safety and security of those hazardous operations. Rigorous self-analysis is employed, including performance evaluations and testing conducted independent of site or headquarters line management. Because public trust is vital to success, DOE emphasizes openness, transparency, and collaboration with workers and their representatives, and the communities in which DOE operates. The DOE enterprise—including government-owned, contractor-operated sites—is also being strengthened to address a range of cyber threats that can adversely impact mission capabilities.
Statement:
Attract, manage, train, and retain the best federal workforce to meet future mission needs
Description:
DOE faces serious workforce challenges over the coming decade, with 15-25% of its federal employees projected to retire, including many of its most experienced and highly skilled professionals. To meet these challenges, the Department must engage in workforce planning and improve its outreach and recruitment programs in order to maintain a federal workforce with the technical skills and experience required to accomplish its science-driven missions. The Department must also significantly improve the quality and efficiency of its human resource operations. DOE is committed to improving human capital policies, programs, and systems through a corporate approach that reduces organizational redundancies and uses capable and cost-effective information technology systems. Since implementation of the President’s Hiring Reform initiatives in FY 2010, the recruitment process for general schedule positions has been reduced from an average 174 days in FY 2009 to 97 days in FY 2013. Efforts are also underway to improve hiring quality and on-boarding processes and outcomes, with a continued focus on promoting diversity and inclusion within the workforce. There are plans to implement a strategy for leadership development across all levels of the organization. Skill gaps will be addressed by using such tools as employee skill assessments and individual development plans. Employee accountability will be addressed through employee performance plans and organizational annual action plans resulting from employee surveys. DOE will also advance its Women in Clean Energy, and Minorities in Energy programs to draw upon the entire American talent pool.
Agency Priority Goals
Statement:
In support of this goal, DOE will:
- Retrieve tank waste, close tanks, and dispose of transuranic waste within cost and schedule through FY 2015
- On a three-year rolling basis, complete at least 90% of departmental projects baselined since the start of FY 2008 within the original scope baseline and not to exceed 110% of the cost as reflected in the performance baseline established at Critical Decision 2 through FY 2015
- Achieve full operational capability of the Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center (JC3), including TS-SCI operations, by the end of FY 2015
Description:
Overview of the Environmental Management part of the goal:
The Department and its predecessor agencies generated radioactive liquid waste as a by-product of the production of nuclear weapons. The EM Program has an estimated 88 million gallons of highly radioactive waste from the legacy of the Cold War stored in 239 tanks at Idaho, the Savannah River Site and the Office of River Protection. By reducing and disposing of the liquid waste tank wastes, EM is demonstrating tangible evidence of the program's goal to reduce the highest risks in the complex. By eliminating high-risk material, corresponding life-cycle cost reductions are achieved for an activity that is a major cost driver to the EM program.
Management and removal of legacy Transuranic (TRU) waste across the EM complex directly supports risk reduction and the goal of reducing the EM site footprint. The EM Program also coordinates with all DOE sites that generate transuranic waste to retrieve, repackage, characterize, ship, and dispose of transuranic waste resulting in cleaning up sites, reducing risks, and decreasing the Department’s nuclear footprint.
Challenges for meeting EM’s Agency Priority Goal (the retrieval of tank waste, closing waste tanks and disposing of transuranic waste) include designing, building, starting up, and operating complex, hazardous, and unique nuclear facilities. These facilities include the Waste Treatment Plant in Hanford, Washington; the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at Idaho National Laboratory; and the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Successful completion of these cleanup goals depends on overcoming technical, quality assurance, schedule, regulatory, and management challenges. The Department will leverage past experience, applying best practices and lessons learned; identify, develop, and deploy practical technological solutions; and look for innovative and sustainable practices that make cleanup more efficient.
Overview of the Project Management goal:
The Department of Energy (DOE) is the largest civilian contracting agency in the Federal Government and spends approximately 95% of its annual budget on contracts to operate its scientific laboratories, engineering and production facilities, and environmental restoration sites and to acquire capital assets. The Department has been challenged, both externally and internally, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its contract and project management processes. The Department remains committed to making continuous improvements in contract and project management performance.
DOE has been on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) High-Risk List since 1990. During the past several years, the Department has launched and completed several initiatives to address its challenges including a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and associated Corrective Action Plan (CAP) in 2008, Contract and Project Management Summit-related corrective actions, and issuance of several Deputy Secretary policy directives. Many measurable improvements have been implemented resulting from these efforts to include: improving front-end planning by requiring sufficient design maturity prior to establishing performance baselines; defining required project staff-size and required skill-set across the project lifecycle and enhancing training and qualifications of project and contract management personnel; stabilizing project funding and affordability by adhering to baseline funding profiles for incrementally funded projects in annual budget requests; strengthening DOE Order 413.3B inclusive of new independent cost estimating requirements at Critical Decision (CD) gateways; deploying a new and more robust Project Assessment and Reporting System (PARS II), which allows for direct upload of contractor project performance data; and implementing Project Peer Reviews, a best practice successfully employed by the Office of Science, across the Department to better monitor project development and execution and foster sharing of design, procurement and construction lessons learned.
Based on the Department’s progress, GAO narrowed the scope of the high-risk designation in 2009, removing the Office of Science and focusing on the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Office of Environmental Management (EM). GAO issued a scorecard with five criteria for removing all DOE programs from the High-Risk List:
- Demonstrate strong commitment and leadership;
- Demonstrate progress in implementing corrective measures;
- Develop a corrective action plan that identifies root causes, effective solutions, and a near-term plan for implementing the solutions;
- Have the capacity (people and resources) to resolve problems; and
- Monitor and independently validate the effectiveness and sustainability of corrective measures.
GAO acknowledged the Department met the first three of these criteria in February 2011. In GAO’s February 2013 High-Risk List update, GAO acknowledged the Department’s continuing improvement in contract and project management by shifting the focus of DOE’s high-risk designation to major contracts and projects executed by NNSA and EM with values of $750 million or greater.
Progress toward achieving this goal, project success, is tracked in the Department’s Project Assessment and Reporting System (PARS II) and reported to Program Offices, GAO and OMB on a quarterly basis.
Overview of the JC3 part of the goal:
The Joint Cybersecurity Center (JC3) is a Departmental enterprise asset designed to improve information sharing and coordinated incident response for all cybersecurity events. Accordingly the DOE Chief Information Officer (CIO) is responsible for developing and maintaining the Department’s overall cybersecurity strategy in coordination with the Undersecretaries of Science & Energy, Nuclear Security, and Management & Performance.
Statement:
Restructure the relationship and interactions between the Department and the national laboratories and sites to ensure the continued status of the national laboratories as world-class research institutions best able to achieve DOE’s mission, maximize the impact of federal R&D investment in the laboratories, accelerate the transfer of technology into the private and government sectors, and better respond to opportunities and challenges. In support of this goal, DOE will:
- Establish the National Laboratory Policy Council to address high-level policy challenges and develop initiatives to build and focus the laboratory system on critical economic, research and national security priorities
- Establish the National Laboratory Operations Board to address operational and administrative issues and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of DOE’s management of the national laboratories
- Improve stewardship of national assets across the national laboratories and DOE operating sites to assure that DOE physical plants and their operating practices comply with DOE Directives and achieve Administration priority initiatives by end of FY 2015
Description:
Cross-cutting initiatives that leverage the science, technology and engineering capabilities in program offices and the DOE national laboratories will enhance and provide opportunities for economic growth by strengthening the Department and supporting the Department’s missions and other national missions.
The Department of Energy National Laboratories are engaged in a broad program of scientific research and technological innovation supporting the Department’s mission responsibilities in energy, nuclear security, science and environmental management.
The National Laboratory Policy Council will provide a forum for the National Laboratories to provide strategic advice and assistance to the Secretary in the Department’s policy and program planning processes and for the Department to provide strategic guidance on National Laboratory activities in support of Departmental missions.
The objectives of the National Laboratory Operations Board are to strengthen and enhance the partnership between the Department and National Laboratories, and to improve management and performance to more effectively and efficiently execute the missions of the Department and the National Laboratories.
