I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1368
To provide for Department of Energy and National Aeronautics and Space
Administration research and development coordination, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY14, 2025
Mr. B
EGICH(for himself, Mr. KENNEDYof Utah, and Mr. WHITESIDES) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Science, Space, and Technology
A BILL
To provide for Department of Energy and National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration research and develop-
ment coordination, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘DOE and NASA Inter-4
agency Research Coordination Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND NATIONAL AERO-1
NAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION RE-2
SEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COORDINA-3
TION. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Energy (in this 5
section referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) and the Adminis-6
trator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administra-7
tion (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Administrator’’) 8
may carry out, as practicable, cross-cutting and collabo-9
rative research and development activities to support the 10
advancement of Department of Energy and National Aer-11
onautics and Space Administration mission requirements 12
and priorities. The Secretary and Administrator, in ac-13
cordance with subsection (e), may make competitive 14
awards to carry out such activities. 15
(b) M
EMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING.—The Sec-16
retary and the Administrator shall coordinate the activi-17
ties under subsection (a) through memoranda of under-18
standing, or other appropriate interagency agreements. 19
(c) C
OORDINATION.—In carrying out the activities 20
under subsection (a), the Secretary and the Administrator 21
may carry out the following: 22
(1) Conduct collaborative research and develop-23
ment activities in a variety of focus areas that may 24
include the following: 25
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(A) Propulsion systems and components, 1
including nuclear thermal and nuclear electric 2
propulsion, radioisotope power systems, thermo-3
electric generators, advanced nuclear fuels, and 4
heater units. 5
(B) Modeling and simulation, machine 6
learning, data assimilation, large scale data 7
analytics, and predictive analysis in order to op-8
timize algorithms for mission-related purposes. 9
(C) Fundamental high energy physics, as-10
trophysics, and cosmology, including the nature 11
of dark energy and dark matter, in accordance 12
with section 305 of the Department of Energy 13
Research and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 14
18643). 15
(D) Fundamental earth and environmental 16
sciences, in accordance with section 306 of the 17
Department of Energy Research and Innovation 18
Act (42 U.S.C. 18644) and section 60501 of 19
title 51, United States Code. 20
(E) Quantum information sciences, includ-21
ing quantum computing and quantum network 22
infrastructure, in accordance with sections 403 23
and 404 of the National Quantum Initiative Act 24
(15 U.S.C. 8853 and 8854). 25
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(F) Radiation health effects, in accordance 1
with section 306 of the Department of Energy 2
Research and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 3
18644). 4
(G) Ground- and space-based technology 5
necessary for the transmission to the Earth’s 6
surface of solar energy collected in space. 7
(H) Other areas of potential research and 8
development collaboration the Secretary and the 9
Administrator determine important to achieving 10
agency missions and objectives. 11
(2) Develop methods to accommodate large vol-12
untary data sets on space and aeronautical informa-13
tion on high-performance computing systems with 14
variable quality and scale. 15
(3) Promote collaboration and data and infor-16
mation sharing between the Department of Energy, 17
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the 18
National Laboratories, and other appropriate enti-19
ties by providing the necessary access and secure 20
data and information transfer capabilities. 21
(4) Support the Administration’s access to the 22
Department’s research infrastructure and capabili-23
ties, as practicable. 24
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(d) AGREEMENTS.—In carrying out the activities 1
under subsection (a), the Secretary and the Administrator 2
are authorized to— 3
(1) carry out reimbursable and non-reimburs-4
able agreements between the Department of Energy 5
and the National Aeronautics and Space Administra-6
tion; and 7
(2) collaborate with other Federal agencies, as 8
appropriate. 9
(e) M
ERITREVIEWPROCESS.—The Secretary and 10
the Administrator shall ensure any competitive awards 11
made to carry out the activities under section (a) shall 12
follow all appropriate laws and agency policies, including 13
the following: 14
(1) Selection by merit-review-based processes. 15
(2) Consideration of applications from Federal 16
agencies, National Laboratories, institutions of high-17
er education, non-profit institutions, and other ap-18
propriate entities. 19
(f) R
EPORT.—Not later than two years after the date 20
of the enactment of this section, the Secretary and the 21
Administrator shall submit to the Committee on Science, 22
Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives 23
and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and 24
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the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 1
of the Senate, a report detailing the following: 2
(1) Interagency research and development co-3
ordination activities between the Department of En-4
ergy and the National Aeronautics and Space Ad-5
ministration carried out under this section. 6
(2) How such coordination activities expand the 7
technical capabilities of the Department and the Ad-8
ministration. 9
(3) Collaborative research and development 10
achievements. 11
(4) Areas of future mutually beneficial activi-12
ties, including potential applications of clean energy 13
technologies, such as marine energy. 14
(5) Continuation of coordination activities be-15
tween the Department of Energy and the National 16
Aeronautics and Space Administration. 17
(g) R
ESEARCHSECURITY.—The activities authorized 18
under this section shall be applied in a manner consistent 19
with subtitle D of title VI of the Research and Develop-20
ment, Competition, and Innovation Act (enacted as divi-21
sion B Public Law 117–167; 42 U.S.C. 19231 et seq.). 22
Æ
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