Office of Strategic Planning and Policy (2020 Presidential transition)
| Book 3 - Organization Overview
|
|---|
| Entire 2020 DOE Transition book As of October 2020 |
The Office of Strategic Planning and Policy (OSPP) fulfills the Department’s strategic goals and supports its mission by coordinating policy across the Departmental Elements of the Department of Energy (DOE) and shapes long-term strategic planning and policy that is consistent with the Secretary’s vision for DOE. OSPP also executes on the development of policy, road-mapping, and DOE planning of Secretarial priorities, while integrating the expertise of relevant Department Elements in all activities.
Mission Statement
The Immediate Office of the Executive Director for the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy (OSPP-1) serves as the principal advisor to the Secretary for strategic planning and policy. OSPP coordinates policy across the Departmental Elements of the Department of Energy (DOE) and shapes long-term strategic planning and policy that is consistent with the Secretary’s vision for DOE. OSPP executes on the development of policy, road-mapping, and DOE planning of Secretarial priorities, while integrating the expertise of relevant Department Elements in all activities. OSPP acts as an internal coordinator and initial point of contact for White House and interagency meetings and policy development. OSPP supports the Secretary in accessing information and expertise within DOE and its National Laboratories. OSPP provides support for Departmental Elements’ priorities and for the directions of the Undersecretaries and Assistant Secretaries.
OSPP coordinates strategic cross-cutting functions across the DOE enterprise. OSPP is staffed by an interdisciplinary team of senior policy advisors, constituted of technical and policy experts with broad skillsets and experience, who will formulate policy pathways to achieve the Secretary’s strategic vision and act on secretarial direction, consistent with DOE’s statutory mission. OSPP develops internal and external strategy documents, reports, white papers, opinion editorials and/or peer-reviewed publications of the Secretary, OSPP, and/or DOE, as appropriate.
Budget
During FY2020, the Secretary announced that the previous Office of Policy (OP) would be restructured to the new OSPP. During the course of calendar year 2020, the OP has been eliminated while the OSPP was established. The OP budget in FY 2020 was used to support both the OP and OSPP employees and functions during the transition. Therefore, while an FY 2022 budget request for OSPP is anticipated, the OP budget over the period is more informative and that budget can be found below.
| Fiscal Year | Budget |
| FY 2019 enacted | $10,010,000 |
| FY 2020 enacted | $7,000,000 |
| FY 2021 requested | $7,631,000 |
Human Resources
FY 2020 authorized full-time equivalents (FTEs): 8
History
On January 28, 2020, the Secretary of Energy announced that the Office of Policy (OP) will be restructured to the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy (OSPP) as a direct report to the Office of the Secretary, rather than as a report to the Under Secretary of Energy. OSPP will provide a more efficient and effective approach to the analysis, formulation, development, and advancement of all policy within the Department.
Functions
- Serve as the principal advisor to the Secretary for the Department’ s overall strategic planning and policy.
- Coordinate, develop, and manage the Department’s Strategic Plan.
- Coordinate and manage policy analysis and development activities that implement and support U.S. energy and national security, environmental, economic, science and technology policies.
- Develop analyze and recommend major Secretarial energy policy initiatives. Develop and analyze legislative proposals to assess their impact on national energy, economic, environmental, national security, science and technology policy
- Conduct reviews of energy policy development plans and proposals of other Departments and agencies, of state and local governments, and of private and public interest groups as they pertain to domestic energy policy. Perform continual assessments of domestic energy conditions, especially as related to national security, economic competitiveness, environmental quality, and trade and market-opening activities.
- Manage departmental participation in regulatory processes of other Federal agencies that have an impact on energy policy.
- Maintain relationships with energy-related industries and trade groups and coordinates information to and from the energy industry.
- Serve as the principal advisor to the Secretary on domestic energy affairs and coordinate the implementation of domestic cooperative agreements
- Maintain working relationships with state and local governments and domestic energy organizations.
- Work with the Office of International Affairs to coordinate programs to promote the export of U.S. energy goods, services, equipment, and technology, to open markets and develop and maintain a level playing field for U.S. investments abroad.
- Oversee the activities and responsibilities the National Laboratory Operations Board (LOB) to ensure appropriate, effective, efficient, and responsible coordination between DOE strategic planning and policy development and the National Laboratories.
Recent Organization Accomplishments
- Defined and presented innovation recommendations for the SEAB Innovation Report.
- Organized and led the DOE Space Coordination Group and completed a DOE Space Strategic Plan.
- Created a joint DOE-NASA MOU on executive- level space coordination.
- Rolled out the Nuclear Fuels Working Group (NFWG) strategy.
- Organized DOE and interagency NFWG strategy implementation plans.
- Stood up a DOE Critical Minerals Coordination Group.
- Coordinated the drafting of a Department Critical Minerals and Materials strategy.
- Supported PA in defining the narrative for S1 communications leading to a more robust communications strategy with over 30 OpEds placed under S1’s name in under 6 months.
- Led, through the Laboratory Operations Board, the drafting of an update to the DOE “State of the Labs” report.
Leadership Challenges
One of the greatest challenges facing OSPP is the recruitment and maintenance of highly talented individuals. OSPP works because of the quality of its people. The culture of the organization is one that expects high performance and leadership from each of its political and career employees. There are only so many individuals within the Department who possess the leadership skills, technical acumen, understanding of the organization, and ability to bring people together. Typically, pulling top-flight talent from elsewhere with the organization can leave a gaping hole in other important Department offices. We have chosen to work with a hybrid structure to provide maximum flexibility, in which some employees are OSPP employees, while other are detailed to OSPP from elsewhere within DOE. The maintenance and curation of talent and leadership are required for the relatively small team to multiply its effectiveness by building efficient teams/coalitions. The current team is excellent. However, evolving the team to meet Secretarial needs and directions will always remain and important periodic challenge.
A second important factor in the effectiveness of the organization as a whole is the perception of OSPP within DOE. Since it is intended to fill gaps between the silos of the Department and work strategically on cross-cutting work, the leadership must expend great deal of time maintaining relationships with senior leadership throughout the Department. This is an ongoing challenge that must continuously be considered.
Critical Events and Action Items
There will be a handful of important releases in the coming months, which could flow into the beginning of calendar year 2021, including the release of a DOE critical minerals and materials strategy and the update to the “State of Labs” report. However, more important will be the use of the OSPP office in the definition of Secretarial priorities and strategic communications. The office will be useful in setting up the internal strategy and planning necessary to execute throughout the remainder of the next Presidential term, especially when tied to the term of service of the Secretary.[1]
Organizational Chart
Links
Internal
- Department of Energy
- Department of Energy: Transitions 2020-organization overviews table of contents
External
References
- ↑ DOE. (2021). Transitions 2020: Organizational Overviews. US Department of Energy.