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Title III — Department of energy

H.R. 7613 · 116th Congress · Jul 15, 2020 · Lineage

III Department of energy

Sec. 301

(a)
No appropriation, funds, or authority made available by this title for the Department of Energy shall be used to initiate or resume any program, project, or activity or to prepare or initiate Requests For Proposals or similar arrangements (including Requests for Quotations, Requests for Information, and Funding Opportunity Announcements) for a program, project, or activity if the program, project, or activity has not been funded by Congress.
(b)
(1)
Unless the Secretary of Energy notifies the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress at least 3 full business days in advance, none of the funds made available in this title may be used to—
(A)
make a grant allocation or discretionary grant award totaling $1,000,000 or more;
(B)
make a discretionary contract award or Other Transaction Agreement totaling $1,000,000 or more, including a contract covered by the Federal Acquisition Regulation;
(C)
issue a letter of intent to make an allocation, award, or Agreement in excess of the limits in subparagraph (A) or (B); or
(D)
announce publicly the intention to make an allocation, award, or Agreement in excess of the limits in subparagraph (A) or (B).
(2)
The Secretary of Energy shall submit directly to the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress within 15 days of the conclusion of each quarter a report detailing each grant allocation or discretionary grant award totaling less than $1,000,000 provided during the previous quarter.
(3)
The notification required by paragraph (1) and the report required by paragraph (2) shall include the recipient of the award, the amount of the award, the fiscal year for which the funds for the award were appropriated, the account and program, project, or activity from which the funds are being drawn, the title of the award, and a brief description of the activity for which the award is made.
(c)
The Department of Energy may not, with respect to any program, project, or activity that uses budget authority made available in this title under the heading “Department of Energy—Energy Programs”, enter into a multiyear contract, award a multiyear grant, or enter into a multiyear cooperative agreement unless—
(1)
the contract, grant, or cooperative agreement is funded for the full period of performance as anticipated at the time of award; or
(2)
the contract, grant, or cooperative agreement includes a clause conditioning the Federal Government's obligation on the availability of future year budget authority and the Secretary notifies the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress at least 3 days in advance.
(d)
Except as provided in subsections (e), (f), and (g), the amounts made available by this title shall be expended as authorized by law for the programs, projects, and activities specified in the “Bill” column in the “Department of Energy” table included under the heading “Title III—Department of Energy” in the report of the Committee on Appropriations accompanying this Act.
(e)
The amounts made available by this title may be reprogrammed for any program, project, or activity, and the Department shall notify the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress at least 30 days prior to the use of any proposed reprogramming that would cause any program, project, or activity funding level to increase or decrease by more than $5,000,000 or 10 percent, whichever is less, during the time period covered by this Act.
(f)
None of the funds provided in this title shall be available for obligation or expenditure through a reprogramming of funds that—
(1)
creates, initiates, or eliminates a program, project, or activity;
(2)
increases funds or personnel for any program, project, or activity for which funds are denied or restricted by this Act; or
(3)
reduces funds that are directed to be used for a specific program, project, or activity by this Act.
(g)
(1)
The Secretary of Energy may waive any requirement or restriction in this section that applies to the use of funds made available for the Department of Energy if compliance with such requirement or restriction would pose a substantial risk to human health, the environment, welfare, or national security.
(2)
The Secretary of Energy shall notify the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress of any waiver under paragraph (1) as soon as practicable, but not later than 3 days after the date of the activity to which a requirement or restriction would otherwise have applied. Such notice shall include an explanation of the substantial risk under paragraph (1) that permitted such waiver.
(h)
The unexpended balances of prior appropriations provided for activities in this Act may be available to the same appropriation accounts for such activities established pursuant to this title. Available balances may be merged with funds in the applicable established accounts and thereafter may be accounted for as one fund for the same time period as originally enacted.

Sec. 302

Funds appropriated by this or any other Act, or made available by the transfer of funds in this Act, for intelligence activities are deemed to be specifically authorized by the Congress for purposes of section 504 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3094) during fiscal year 2021 until the enactment of the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021.

Sec. 303

None of the funds made available in this title shall be used for the construction of facilities classified as high-hazard nuclear facilities under 10 CFR Part 830 unless independent oversight is conducted by the Office of Enterprise Assessments to ensure the project is in compliance with nuclear safety requirements.

Sec. 304

None of the funds made available in this title may be used to approve critical decision-2 or critical decision-3 under Department of Energy Order 413.3B, or any successive departmental guidance, for construction projects where the total project cost exceeds $100,000,000, until a separate independent cost estimate has been developed for the project for that critical decision.

Sec. 305

Notwithstanding section 161 of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6241), upon a determination by the President in this fiscal year that a regional supply shortage of refined petroleum product of significant scope and duration exists, that a severe increase in the price of refined petroleum product will likely result from such shortage, and that a draw down and sale of refined petroleum product would assist directly and significantly in reducing the adverse impact of such shortage, the Secretary of Energy may draw down and sell refined petroleum product from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Proceeds from a sale under this section shall be deposited into the SPR Petroleum Account established in section 167 of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6247), and such amounts shall be available for obligation, without fiscal year limitation, consistent with that section.

Sec. 306

(a)
Of the offsetting collections, including unobligated balances of such collections, in the “Department of Energy—Power Marketing Administration—Colorado River Basins Power Marketing Fund, Western Area Power Administration”, $21,400,000 shall be transferred to the “Department of the Interior—Bureau of Reclamation—Upper Colorado River Basin Fund” for the Bureau of Reclamation to carry out environmental stewardship and endangered species recovery efforts.
(b)
No funds shall be transferred directly from “Department of Energy—Power Marketing Administration—Colorado River Basins Power Marketing Fund, Western Area Power Administration” to the general fund of the Treasury in the current fiscal year.

Sec. 307

(a)
None of the funds made available in this Act or any other Act for any fiscal year may be used to take an action described in subsection (b) unless—
(1)
the Secretary of Energy submits a written notification to the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress regarding such action, including—
(A)
a detailed justification and information about the assumptions underlying such action; and
(B)
with respect to an action described in paragraph (1) or (3) of such subsection—
(i)
a preliminary cost range for the nuclear weapon program affected by such action;
(ii)
the estimated costs for such program during the five-year period following the notification; and
(iii)
the source and amount of funds for such action by program, project, or activity level.
(2)
a period of 15 business days elapses following the date of such notification.
(b)
An action described in this subsection is any of the following:
(1)
Approving the development of a new nuclear weapon or the modification of a nuclear weapon, including as described in section 179(d)(8) of title 10, United States Code.
(2)
Studying whether to develop a new or modified nuclear weapon.
(3)
Changing the scope of a nuclear weapon program if such change modifies the cost of such program by $300,000,000 or more.

Sec. 308

None of the funds made available by this Act or any other Act making appropriations for energy and water development and related agencies for any fiscal year may be used to conduct, or make specific preparations for, any explosive nuclear weapons test that produces any yield.

Sec. 309

None of the funds made available by this Act or any other Act making appropriations for energy and water development and related agencies may be used in furtherance of working through the Nuclear Weapons Council to guide, advise, assist, develop, or execute a budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration.