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“THE INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO MAKE NON-PROFIT DOE CONTRACTORS SUBJECT TO CIVIL PENALTIES FOR SAFETY VIOLATIONS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E2408 on Nov. 17, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO MAKE NON-PROFIT DOE CONTRACTORS
SUBJECT TO CIVIL PENALTIES FOR SAFETY VIOLATIONS
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HON. JOE BARTON
of texas
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, November 16, 1999
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation to correct a long-standing problem in the management of Department of Energy facilities.
Current law provides a special deal for DOE's non-profit contractors. When these non-profit contractors violate DOE's nuclear safety regulations, they are exempt from paying any fines for their misdeeds.
This exemption means that we now have two different sets of rules for DOE contractors--one set of rules for the conventional for-profit contractors, who are subject to fines for safety violations, and another set of rules for the non-profit contractors, who pay no penalty whatsoever for safety violations.
Because there are no adverse financial consequences when these non-
profit contractors violate safety rules, we have unintentionally created a system in which there is little incentive for the non-profit contractors to take their nuclear safety responsibilities seriously.
The 1988 Price-Anderson Amendments to the Atomic Energy Act specifically exempted seven contractors, including non-profit institutions such as the University of California, from civil penalties. In a 1993 rule, the Secretary of Energy provided an automatic exemption from civil penalties for all non-profit educational institutions. This bill would amend the Atomic Energy Act to eliminate the statutory exemption for specific non-profit contractors and also eliminate the authority of the Secretary of Energy to provide, by regulation, an automatic exemption for all non-profit educational institutions.
At the Committee's request, the General Accounting Office recently completed a review of DOE's enforcement of nuclear safety rules, documenting recent DOE safety violations at DOE facilities. Of the total penalties assessed from 1996 through 1998 for safety violations, one-third of those penalties were assessed against non-profit contractors--and because of the exemptions in statute and in regulation, never had to be paid.
GAO concluded that the exemption for non-profit contractors should be eliminated. It made that recommendation in its report to Congress, and it testified to that effect before the Commerce Committee in a hearing on DOE Worker Safety on June 29, 1999.
This is a good example of how the legislative process works. Problems in agency performance, in this case recurrent safety problems at DOE facilities, prompted a closer look by the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, with the assistance of the GAO. This led to the legislation we are introducing today to solve those problems.
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