I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5355 

To amend the America COMPETES Act to prevent political interference 

in the communication of scientific research, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 6, 2019 

Mr. NEGUSE (for himself, Ms. BONAMICI, and Mr. CASTEN of Illinois) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, 

Space, and Technology 

A BILL 

To amend the America COMPETES Act to prevent political 

interference in the communication of scientific research, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stop Climate Censor5 ship Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PREVENTION OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN THE 

7 COMMUNICATION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 

8 Title I of the America COMPETES Act is amended 

9 by adding at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 1010. PREVENTION OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE. 

2 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after 

3 the date of the enactment of this section, the Director of 

4 the Office of Science and Technology Policy shall develop 

5 and issue policies, consistent with established scientific in6 tegrity policies, that require political appointees of each 

7 Federal civilian agency that conducts scientific research 

8 to publicly report on any action by such political ap9 pointee— 

10 ‘‘(1) to modify any scientific research or find11 ings that are used to inform any agency communica12 tion to the public relating to climate change; or 

13 ‘‘(2) to modify any agency communication to 

14 the public in a manner inconsistent with scientific 

15 research or findings relating to climate change. 

16 ‘‘(b) CONTENTS OF REPORT.—The report required 

17 under subsection (a) shall— 

18 ‘‘(1) specify the specific individuals who were 

19 involved in the decision to take such action; 

20 ‘‘(2) describe the scientific evidence used to jus21 tify such decision; 

22 ‘‘(3) specify any other agency or individual con23 sulted with respect to such decision; and 

24 ‘‘(4) be provided by such political appointee to 

25 the appropriate committees of jurisdiction in Con26 gress for the respective agencies. 


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1 ‘‘(c) REVIEW OF POLICIES.—The Director of the Of2 fice of Science and Technology Policy shall review and up3 date as necessary the policies described in this section on 

4 a biennial basis. 

5 ‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

6 ‘‘(1) POLITICAL APPOINTEE.—The term ‘polit7 ical appointee’ means a Federal employee who 

8 holds— 

9 ‘‘(A) a position which has been excepted 

10 from the competitive service by reason of its 

11 confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, 

12 or policy-advocating character; or 

13 ‘‘(B) a position in the Senior Executive 

14 Service as a noncareer appointee (as such term 

15 is defined in section 3132(a) of title 5, United 

16 States Code). 

17 ‘‘(2) CLIMATE CHANGE.—The term ‘climate 

18 change’ means any change in the state of the global 

19 climate that can be identified by changes in the 

20 mean or the variability of its properties, and that 

21 persists for an extended period, typically decades or 

22 longer.’’. 

Æ 


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