 Ronald Reagan promised in 1980 that if elected, he would eliminate it, even though the department was not yet four years old when he entered the White House. And his first energy secretary, James Edwards, said he had gone to Washington to work myself out of a job. At least one other attempt to close the department was made in the mid-90s when Republicans introduced a bill that would have taken it apart, privatizing its assets and transferring its functions, such as defense-related nuclear weapons responsibilities to other parts of the government.