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The Energy Department's top lawyer is urging caution as the agency weighs massive cuts to active contracts and grants, according to a guidance memo obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: The memo provides the most specific advice yet for how agency officials should complete DOGE spreadsheets that justify retaining, terminating or renegotiating contracts and grants worth tens of billions of dollars.
- The DOGE spreadsheets should be marked as "legal privilege" documents to protect against disclosure and release under FOIA, it stated.
What's inside: Political appointees at the agency are tasked with deciding whether grants and contracts are both "efficient" and "consistent with DOE policies and priorities," according to the memo, dated March 17 and signed by Acting General Counsel David R. Taggart.
- If the award is found inefficient or inconsistent with DOE policies, officials must recommend termination or modification, possibly through renegotiation of the award, it said.
- The memo stresses that consistency in filling out the spreadsheets is crucial, "particularly in light of the current heavy litigation environment related to EO direction to terminate federal funding."
The big picture: The awards on the chopping block are "expected to include most types of DOE discretionary spending agreements," including national laboratory management and operations contracts and some subcontracts and subawards, the memo stated.
- DOE officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Zoom in: Before terminating or modifying any award, the memo requires officials to consult with legal counsel "to ensure that the department remains in full compliance with various court orders."
- It advises officials to keep language as brief as possible and avoid clustering awards into categories, as their language "might overlook nuances between the covered contracts and grants that might result in terminating efficient agreements or keeping inefficient agreements."
Between the lines: The DOE's standard contract termination language allows the department to cancel an award that "no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities."
- That note "seems like the one DOE will point to if it seeks to terminate awards," said Mary Anne Sullivan, partner at Hogan Lovells, who was DOE general counsel under former President Bill Clinton.
