42 U.S.C. § 7269: Transfer of funds

The Secretary, when authorized in an appropriation Act, in any fiscal year, may transfer funds from one appropriation to another within the Department, except that no appropriation shall be either increased or decreased pursuant to this section by more than 5 per centum of the appropriation for such fiscal year. In any fiscal year in which the Secretary of Energy determines that additional funds are needed to reimburse the costs of defined benefit pension plans for contractor employees, the Secretary may transfer not more than 1 percent from each appropriation made available in this and subsequent Energy and Water Development Appropriation Acts to any other appropriation available to the Secretary in the same Act for such reimbursements. Where the Secretary recovers the costs of defined benefit pension plans for contractor employees through charges for the indirect costs of research and activities at facilities of the Department of Energy, if the indirect costs attributable to defined benefit pension plan costs in a fiscal year are more than charges in fiscal year 2008, the Secretary shall carry out a transfer of funds under this section. In carrying out a transfer under this section, the Secretary shall use each appropriation made available to the Department in that fiscal year as a source for the transfer, and shall reduce each appropriation by an equal percentage, except that appropriations for which the Secretary determines there exists a need for additional funds for pension plan costs in that fiscal year, as well as appropriations made available for the Power Marketing Administrations, the title XVII [probably means title XVII of Pub. L. 109–58 ( 42 U.S.C. 16511 et seq.)] loan guarantee program, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, shall not be subject to this requirement. Each January, the Secretary shall report to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate on the state of defined benefit pension plan liabilities in the Department for the preceding year. This transfer authority does not apply to supplemental appropriations, and is in addition to any other transfer authority provided in this or any other Act. The authority provided under this section shall expire on September 30, 2015 . The Secretary shall notify the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate in writing not less than 30 days in advance of each transfer authorized by this section.”