A second hearing took place in Washington, D.C., yesterday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations regarding the University of California's management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the laboratory's business and administrative practices.

Senior Vice President Bruce Darling represented UC at the hearing, as he did at the committee's first hearing Feb. 26. He re-emphasized to committee members that UC "is committed to reforming the business and management practices at Los Alamos National Laboratory, that senior university officials continue to investigate potential abuses at the laboratory and to institute appropriate reforms, and that our goal remains to raise our business practices to the level of our science and weapons programs and to restore public confidence in the laboratory and the university."

Darling also reported on new developments at Los Alamos, including settlement agreements reached with security division director Stanley Busboom, deputy Gene Tucker, and audit manager Katherine Brittin that will result in their departure from the laboratory. Darling said that other personnel actions are forthcoming and responded to committee members' questions from the previous hearing on procurement and purchasing matters, employee morale and audit procedures.

Others who testified at the hearing included current and former Los Alamos officials. In response to pointed questioning from committee members, they defended their actions in the dismissals of investigators Glenn Walp and Steve Doran, disputed the perception of widespread illegal activity at Los Alamos and denied any attempt on their part to withhold information.

In response to committee members' questions, Darling pledged to pursue any new information about employee concerns at the laboratories and expressed support for Interim Director Pete Nanos' efforts to bring about a more open and trusting environment at Los Alamos.

Darling told the committee: "I want to emphasize, as I did two weeks ago, that the university has not and will not let its unwavering focus on the important business and management issues that we are discussing today distract the laboratory from fulfilling its mission to the nation…The work being done at Los Alamos today is as important as at any time in the 60 years that the university has had the privilege and responsibility of managing the laboratory. We remain honored to oversee this important work on behalf of the nation."

The full text of Darling's testimony is available at: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/losalamos/0303hearing.html

More information on laboratory management issues is available at: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/losalamos/welcome.html