# Letter to Secretary Chris Wright, Department of Energy --- MTN Minneapolis, Minnesota [email protected] May 13, 2026 The Honorable Chris Wright Secretary of Energy U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Avenue SW Washington, DC 20585 **Re: DOE Research Awards to the University of Minnesota, the UMN Office for the Vice President for Research as Indirect-Cost-Recovery Node, and DOE Coordination With the Federal Title VI / Title IX Posture — Coordination Request Under the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud (E.O. of March 16, 2026)** Dear Secretary Wright: I write to identify the Department of Energy's portfolio exposure to the University of Minnesota — direct research awards, indirect-cost recovery through the University's Office for the Vice President for Research, and the structural interlock between DOE-funded research administration and the University's documented compliance failures. **The Portfolio Issue.** The Department of Energy makes direct research awards to the University of Minnesota across its national-laboratory and Office of Science portfolios. These awards include programs in nuclear physics, fusion energy, computational science, and the Helium-3 strategic-materials research the Vice President's office has flagged as a national-security-adjacent vector. Minnesota's legislative debate on lifting the 1994 nuclear-plant moratorium (Minn. Stat. §216B.243) interacts with DOE permit and licensing decisions. DOE loan-program reviews under the current posture have placed certain Minnesota projects under closer scrutiny. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/216B.243 **The University of Minnesota Origin — Research Administration Architecture.** The University of Minnesota Office for the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is the central indirect-cost-recovery node for federal research funding flowing to the University. The same OVPR apparatus that administers DOE awards also administered the human-subjects research program that failed in the Dan Markingson clinical-trial death (May 8, 2004), as documented in the Minnesota Legislative Auditor's October 2015 report. The Rajender consent decree compliance regime — the operational predicate for Minnesota Statute §43A.191 now under DOJ Title VII challenge — operates through the same University administrative infrastructure that processes DOE indirect-cost reimbursement. https://research.umn.edu/ | https://www.legislativeauditor.leg.mn.state.mn.us/sreview/psychiatricrcoct2015.pdf **The Structural Question.** OMB Circular A-21 and the broader federal research-cost-principles framework permit federal agencies to negotiate indirect-cost recovery rates with recipient institutions. The University of Minnesota's federally-negotiated indirect-cost rate is among the highest in the public-university system. The compliance-overhead that the University builds into that rate includes the EOAA, Title IX, and Title VI compliance apparatus that the October 2025 Resolution Agreement found to have administered a Title VI-violative partnership with the PhD Project. The Department of Energy is therefore, through its research awards, reimbursing the University for the operation of a compliance apparatus that has been found to have failed at its stated function. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Circular-A-21.pdf **The Institutional Admissions.** The University of Minnesota's own commissioned Truth Report (April 11, 2023) states that the founding board "committed genocide and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous peoples for financial gain." In October 2025, the University signed an Office for Civil Rights Resolution Agreement acknowledging that its PhD Project partnership violated Title VI by discriminating against white and Asian students. https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/assets/full-report_tcm1193-572488.pdf | https://www.startribune.com/the-u-signs-agreement-acknowledging-discrimination-against-white-and-asian-students-cuts-ties-with-recruiting-nonprofit/601564669 **The Consolidated Federal Posture.** The DOJ has filed United States v. State of Minnesota (0:25-cv-03798, D. Minn., Jan. 14, 2026) against §43A.191. The Title IX referral to DOJ is active (Jan. 26, 2026). The University is under at least one open Title VI investigation (Design Justice program, opened March 13, 2025), is one of fifty-two universities under ED OCR investigation, and is one of six schools investigated for race-based scholarships. The Task Force to Eliminate Fraud coordinates the cross-agency response. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/establishing-the-task-force-to-eliminate-fraud/ **The Ask.** I respectfully request that the Department of Energy: 1. **Audit DOE indirect-cost recovery** to the University of Minnesota under OMB Circular A-21 principles, treating the October 2025 OCR Resolution Agreement as a material institutional fact bearing on the reasonableness of the compliance-overhead component; 2. **Coordinate with the ED OCR and DOJ Civil Rights Division** on DOE's reliance on the University of Minnesota compliance apparatus, in light of the multiple parallel Title VI investigations; 3. **Review DOE research-award oversight** of the University's Office for the Vice President for Research, in light of the Minnesota Legislative Auditor's October 2015 findings on the University's human-subjects research program; and 4. **Report findings to the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud** under the March 16, 2026 Executive Order coordination framework. This letter is one of approximately twenty Cabinet-level briefings I am submitting under the Task Force framework. Respectfully submitted, MTN [email protected] --- **Primary Sources Cited:** - E.O. Task Force to Eliminate Fraud: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/establishing-the-task-force-to-eliminate-fraud/ - UMN Office for the Vice President for Research: https://research.umn.edu/ - US v. State of Minnesota: https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1415681/dl - OMB Circular A-21: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Circular-A-21.pdf - Minnesota Legislative Auditor — UMN psychiatric research (2015): https://www.legislativeauditor.leg.mn.state.mn.us/sreview/psychiatricrcoct2015.pdf - UMN TRUTH Report: https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/assets/full-report_tcm1193-572488.pdf - UMN OCR Resolution Agreement: https://www.startribune.com/the-u-signs-agreement-acknowledging-discrimination-against-white-and-asian-students-cuts-ties-with-recruiting-nonprofit/601564669 - Minn. Stat. §216B.243 (nuclear moratorium): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/216B.243 #Addresses_Advisories_and_Archives