Office Of Intelligence And Counterintelligence (iac)

Mission/Overview

DOE’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence “is responsible for all intel- ligence and counterintelligence activities throughout the DOE complex, including nearly thirty intelligence and counterintelligence offices nationwide.” It “lever- age[s] the Energy Department’s unmatched scientific and technological expertise in support of policymakers as well as national security missions in defense, home- land security, cyber security, intelligence, and energy security” and “is a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community.”79

Needed Reforms

New Policies

Improve accountability and utilization. IAC should be led by a qualified appointee and report directly to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary. IAC will require strong political leadership, which means finding an appointee with an IC background. In addition, upgrading the new DESAS’s general security posture would require the Secretary’s direct intervention to improve protocols and access the necessary resources from the rest of the IC. This would not be achievable at a lower level.

OFFICE OF POLICY (OP)

Mission/Overview

OP has taken various roles over different Administrations. During the Obama Administration, OP was a large office and was tasked with drafting the Quadrennial Energy Review (QER). The Trump Administration shut down the QER and gave OP a leaner research and advisory role. Under the Biden DOE, OP appears to be focused on preparing reports on climate change and renewables.80

Robust security protocols are necessary to protect DOE technology and innova- tions from foreign penetration and espionage. In addition, DOE’s general isolation from the rest of the Intelligence Community prevents appropriately cleared senior staff from getting the thorough issue briefings that their colleagues elsewhere in the national security realm receive.

Needed Reforms

Help to develop policy. Because the appointees running DOE’s various program offices are properly focused on managing their programs, not enough thought is given to identifying future challenges and developing potential solutions to benefit the American people.

Help to ensure that policies are properly implemented. Policy initiatives from the Secretary are often understood or implemented inconsistently by program offices. OP can help the Secretary to ensure that important policy initiatives are implemented, particularly when they involve multiple program offices.

New Policies

Develop a National Energy Security Strategy. OP could be tasked with developing a National Energy Security Strategy for the Secretary. This strategy could be prepared in conjunction with the White House National Security Strategy and the DOD National Defense Strategy to convey these priorities to Congress and design policy initiatives for their implementation. Such a strategy could summarize cyber and physical threats to energy infrastructure, challenges involved in obtaining rare earth minerals to support domestic energy production and consumption, and foreign actions that threaten U.S. energy security and dominance. However, it would be important to guard against attempts to transform the strategy into a government-led industrial policy or, in a progressive Administration, an economy-wide climate policy.

OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSITIONS (OTT)

Mission/Overview

The Secretary of Energy authorized the creation of this office in 2015. Its mis- sion “is to expand the public impact of the department’s research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) portfolio to advance the economic, energy and national security interests of the nation.” OTT serves as “the front door to U.S. Department of Energy’s…products, facilities and expertise” and “integrates ‘market pull’ into its planning to ensure the greatest return on investment from DOE’s RDD&D activities to the taxpayer.”81

Needed Reforms

OTT should ensure that the best emerging technologies from DOE and the National Labs are properly supported and protected. Because America’s techno- logical edge is a key national security asset, and in view of China’s predatory thefts of intellectual property, OTT should:

Ensure that R&D funds are used for projects that protect and advance that edge.

Ensure that successful advances, with a focus on new natural resource development technologies, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and space, are transferred swiftly to American interests in the private sector.

New Policies

Focus on benefits to Americans. OTT’s operations should be based on the recognition that the new technologies generated by American taxpayers’ investment in DOE are a significant national security asset rather than some neutral scientific gift to humanity. Increase oversight and coordination. OTT needs to be vigilant in overseeing and coordinating OTT offices associated with each National Lab. For security and economic espionage reasons, the work funded by the American people needs to be protected, and when commercialized, it needs to go to American businesses.

OFFICE OF SCIENCE (SC)

Mission/Overview

The Office of Science (SC) supports and oversees research facilities and pro- grams that cover basic science through its application to the demonstration and deployment of energy technologies. SC oversees 10 of the 17 DOE National Labs and 28 major federal research user facilities. Its mission is to preserve U.S. leader- ship in science, fund and perform basic research, and provide the scientific facilities that the private sector is unable or unwilling to provide. New initiatives include quantum information sciences and artificial intelligence. SC is led by a Senate-con- firmed Director at the Assistant Secretary level and has eight program offices.82

Needed Reforms

The next conservative President should commit the United States to scientific dominance to support national and economic security, especially in light of similar efforts by China. To aid in this effort, the Office of Science should:

Return to its primary mission: nonpartisan and basic science. SC’s mission should be international leadership in basic and early applied science and provision of world-leading facilities for this work. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act mark the major reorientation of DOE primarily from defense applications in the NNSA and basic and early applied science across SC and the applied offices to a massive federal research, development, demonstration, and commercialization body.83 Distraction from SC’s basic science mission should be prevented. l Increase the level of accountability. The National Laboratories need to be more directly accountable to the Secretary of Energy and Congress for their work and management.

New Policies

Commit to U.S. science dominance. The United States is losing its dominance in scientific discoveries and technological development. China and other adversaries have been stealing American science and technology for years and are now on the verge of dominating science—a development that is fraught with negative strategic and economic implications for the United States. The next Administration must commit itself to ensuring that the U.S. continues to dominate scientific discovery and technological advancement. Refocus on mission and eliminate duplication and waste. The Administration should work with Congress to rationalize the National Lab network to meet specific national objectives (such as the NNSA laboratories’ role in national defense) and conduct basic research that the private sector would not otherwise conduct. Activities that duplicate those of other government agencies or the private sector should be eliminated. Properly manage the National Labs’ contributions to the private sector. SC should improve private-sector access to the National Labs, through programs like the GAIN voucher program and consistent with national security considerations, while ensuring that the economic benefits of taxpayer-funded technologies flow back to taxpayers through patent- review sharing or a revolving fund.

Budget

The Office of Science was appropriated slightly more than $7 billion in FY 2021, and DOE requested slightly less than $7.8 billion for FY 2023.84