42 U.S.C. § 19312 — Entrepreneurial leave program

(a) In general The Secretary^* must delegate to Directors the authority to carry out an entrepreneurial leave program (referred to in this section as the “program”) to allow National Laboratory^* employees to take a full leave of absence from their position, with the option to return to that or a comparable position up to 3 years later, or a partial leave of absence, to advance the commercial application of energy and related technologies relevant to the mission of the Department^*.
(b) Termination authority Directors must retain the authority to end National Laboratory employees that participate in the program if such employees are found to violate terms prescribed by the National Laboratory at which such employee is employed.
(c) Licensing To reduce barriers to participation in the program, the Secretary must delegate to the Directors the requirement to establish streamlined mechanisms for facilitating the licensing of technology that is the focus of National Laboratory employees who participate in the program.
(d) Report In accordance with section 16391a of this title , the Secretary must report annually on the utilization of this authority at National Laboratories, including the number of employees who participate in this program at each National Laboratory and the number of employees who take a permanent leave from their positions at National Laboratories as a result of participating in this program.
(e) Federal ethics Nothing in this section must affect existing Federal ethics rules applicable to Federal personnel.