Sec. 30101. Establishment of Office of Energy Employment and Training

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The Secretary of the Interior shall establish an Office of Energy Employment and Training, which shall oversee the hiring and training efforts of the Department of the Interior’s energy planning, permitting, and regulatory agencies. The Office shall be under the direction of a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Employment and Training, who shall report directly to the Assistant Secretary for Energy, Lands and Minerals Management, and shall be fully employed to carry out the functions of the Office.

The Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Employment and Training shall perform the following functions: Develop and implement systems to track the Department’s hiring of trained skilled workers in the energy permitting and inspection agencies. Design and recommend to the Secretary programs and policies aimed at expanding the Department’s hiring of women, minorities, and veterans into the Department’s workforce dealing with energy permitting and inspection programs. Such programs and policies shall include— recruiting at historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, women’s colleges, and colleges that typically serve majority minority populations; sponsoring and recruiting at job fairs in urban communities; placing employment advertisements in newspapers and magazines oriented toward minorities, veterans, and women; partnering with organizations that are focused on developing opportunities for minorities, veterans, and women to be placed in Departmental internships, summer employment, and full-time positions relating to energy; where feasible, partnering with inner-city high schools, girls’ high schools, and high schools with majority minority populations to demonstrate career opportunities and the path to those opportunities available at the Department; coordinating with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense in the hiring of veterans; and any other mass media communications that the Deputy Assistant Secretary determines necessary to advertise, promote, or educate about opportunities at the Department.

Develop standards for— equal employment opportunity and the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of the workforce and senior management of the Department; and increased participation of minority-owned, veteran-owned, and women-owned businesses in the programs and contracts with the Department. Review and propose for adoption the best practices of entities regulated by the Department with regards to hiring and diversity policies, and publish those best practices for public review.

The Secretary shall submit to Congress an annual report regarding the actions taken by the Department of the Interior agency and the Office pursuant to this section, which shall include— a statement of the total amounts paid by the Department to minority contractors; the successes achieved and challenges faced by the Department in operating minority, veteran or service-disabled veteran, and women outreach programs; the challenges the Department may face in hiring minority, veteran, and women employees and contracting with veteran or service-disabled veteran, minority-owned, and women-owned businesses; and any other information, findings, conclusions, and recommendations for legislative or Department action, as the Director determines appropriate.

For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply: The term minority means United States citizens who are Asian Indian American, Asian Pacific American, Black American, Hispanic American, or Native American. The term minority-owned business means a for-profit enterprise, regardless of size, physically located in the United States or its trust territories, that is owned, operated, and controlled by minority group members. Minority group members are United States citizens who are Asian Indian American, Asian Pacific American, Black American, Hispanic American, or Native American (terminology in NMSDC categories).

Ownership by minority individuals means the business is at least 51 percent owned by such individuals or, in the case of a publicly owned business, at least 51 percent of the stock is owned by one or more such individuals. Further, the management and daily operations are controlled by those minority group members. For purposes of NMSDC’s program, a minority group member is an individual who is a United States citizen with at least 1/4 or 25 percent minimum (documentation to support claim of 25 percent required from applicant) of one or more of the following:

Asian Indian American, which is a United States citizen whose origins are from India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. Asian Pacific American, which is a United States citizen whose origins are from Japan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, Samoa, Guam, the United States Trust Territories of the Pacific, or the Northern Marianas. Black American, which is a United States citizen having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.

Hispanic American, which is a United States citizen of true-born Hispanic heritage, from any of the Spanish-speaking areas of the following regions: Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean Basin only. Native American, which means a United States citizen enrolled to a federally recognized tribe, or a Native as defined under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The term NMSDC means the National Minority Supplier Development Council. The term women-owned business means a business that can verify through evidence documentation that 51 percent or more is women-owned, managed, and controlled.

The business must be open for at least 6 months. The business owner must be a United States citizen or legal resident alien. Evidence must indicate that— the contribution of capital or expertise by the woman business owner is real and substantial and in proportion to the interest owned; the woman business owner directs or causes the direction of management, policy, fiscal, and operational matters; and the woman business owner has the ability to perform in the area of specialty or expertise without reliance on either the finances or resources of a firm that is not owned by a woman.

The term Service Disabled Veteran must have a service-connected disability that has been determined by the Department of Veterans Affairs or Department of Defense. The SDVOSBC must be small under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to the procurement; the SDV must unconditionally own 51 percent of the SDVOSBC; the SDVO must control the management and daily operations of the SDVOSBC; and the SDV must hold the highest officer position in the SDVOSBC.

The term veteran-owned business means a business that can verify through evidence documentation that 51 percent or more is veteran-owned, managed, and controlled. The business must be open for at least 6 months. The business owner must be a United States citizen or legal resident alien and honorably or service-connected disability discharged from service.