Office of the General Counsel - NNSA (2020 Presidential transition)

Book 3 - Organization Overview
Entire 2020 DOE Transition book As of October 2020

The NNSA Office of the General Counsel (NA-GC) is responsible for providing legal advice to all NNSA elements worldwide, and is responsible for providing legal program direction, policy, and oversight to NNSA’s legal offices throughout the United States.

Mission Statement

NA-GC attorneys are responsible for providing legal advice on a wide variety of complex issues to facilitate achievement of the NNSA’s national security mission, in compliance with all pertinent laws and regulations. The office also jointly manages the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act (PA) programs for NNSA, and ensures that NNSA fulfills its obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by providing NEPA Compliance Officers and policy for NNSA. The NNSA Procurement Legal Team (PLT) has been organized to attain a single legal voice for NNSA on procurement legal matters and establish single points of contact (POCs) on procurement legal issues for our NNSA clients. The PLT provides legal advice and counsel to clients throughout the NNSA procurement community regarding contracts, financial assistance agreements, interagency agreements, and other business transactions.

Budget

NA-GC funding is included in the Federal Salaries and Expenses budget line.

Fiscal Year	Budget
FY 2019 enacted	$856,529
FY 2020 enacted	$648,971
FY 2021 requested	Not yet provided to NA-GC

Human Resources

FY 2020 authorized full-time equivalents (FTEs): 40

History

The NNSA Office of the General Counsel was reorganized in 2012, incorporating the Office of Chief Counsel at the former Albuquerque Operations Complex, and creating a unified Headquarters Office with staff located both in the National Capital Region and Albuquerque. An additional reorganization, involving the FOIA/PA program and the NEPA program, was accomplished in 2014

Functions

The General Counsel is the chief legal officer of the National Nuclear Security Administration [Section 3217 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000, Public Law 106-65, as amended (50 U.S.C. 2407)]. As Chief Legal Officer, the General Counsel advises the Administrator on various legalities attendant to the Administrator’s program decisions and on a variety of legal matters, including the implications of proposed legislation and relevant laws, executive orders, and court decisions, and the binding decisions of third-party judicial and administrative appellate bodies. The General Counsel is the chief promulgator of NNSA’s legal program policies.