Pub. Contract Code, § 12501.5

(a) The Governor shall designate the Secretary of State and Consumer Services as the state’s representative for purposes of communicating and negotiating with representatives of the United States Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, federally funded DOE and NASA research and development centers in California, and NASA field centers in California regarding any issue that may affect a contractual relationship between the state and these federal entities. The Secretary of State and Consumer Services may delegate this responsibility to the Director of the Department of General Services if the secretary views such delegation as necessary to advance the successful negotiation of contracts between the state and one or more of those federal entities.

(b) The Secretary of State and Consumer Services or his or her designee shall develop policies and procedures to encourage and enable the contracting process with federally funded DOE and NASA research and development centers and NASA field centers and shall develop model contract language that is available for use by any state agency or department in negotiating a contract with one of these centers. The Regents of the University of California shall not be considered a state agency for the purposes of this chapter, and specifically shall not be covered as prime contractor with the DOE for management of DOE laboratories.