Senate and House Democratic appropriators are seeking answers from Secretary of Energy Chris Wright over Project Velocity, a DOE effort to revise operating directives at national laboratories and nuclear security sites.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), ranking members of the Senate and House Energy and Water Development Appropriations subcommittees, said in a Sept. 16 letter that DOE’s changes could affect nuclear safety, project management and federal oversight.
DOE announced Aug. 13 that it had revised 46 directives and canceled four others as part of Project Velocity. The department has described the initiative, born from an October 2025 memo, as a shift from “prescriptive procedural compliance” toward “performance-based accountability,” while saying modernization will maintain safety and security standards, according to the letter.
“We recognize the importance of ensuring that the Department’s requirements are efficient, current, and appropriately tailored to risk. We share those goals,” the letter said. “However, efficiency cannot come at the expense of independent oversight, reliable information, technical rigor, and the worker protections necessary to safely operate the Department’s unique facilities and effectively and responsibly steward billions of taxpayer dollars.”
The lawmakers highlighted three canceled directives: DOE Order 231.1B on environment, safety and health reporting; Order 232.2A on occurrence reporting; and Order 442.2 on differing professional opinions involving environmental, safety and health concerns.
The letter said standardized reporting requirements help Congress, regulators and the public track safety trends across national laboratories, plants and sites. They also questioned how workers and safety professionals will challenge technical decisions following the cancellation of Order 442.2.
The letter points to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) review that found DOE had not established specific goals or performance measures for an earlier effort to streamline project management. GAO warned that streamlining could produce less reliable cost estimates and delay identification of cost and schedule overruns.