David Cay Johnston: “the bill that I have just introduced, which is strongly supported by the administration, amends or repeals a number of…”

“the bill that I have just introduced, which is strongly supported by the administration, amends or repeals a number of sections in the Department of Energy Organization Act and the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 that are obsolete or that are duplicative or inconsistent with other, Governmentwide statutes governing rulemaking and advisory committee management. Over the past 3 years, I have proposed, on a number of occasions, amendments to remove administrative requirements of the Department of Energy Organization Act that are more onerous than similar Governmentwide requirements contained in more general statutes. For example, with the support of the Department of Energy [DOE] and the Office of Government Ethics, I have successfully promoted the repeal of financial disclosure and divestiture requirements affecting DOE employees that were more stringent than the comparable requirements of the Ethics in Government Act and that provided potent recruitment disincentives for outstanding potential employees for the Department. This bill continues the process of placing DOE on a similar footing in administrative law to other Federal agencies.”