IIB 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4375 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 20, 2017 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 

and Transportation 

AN ACT 

To provide for a report on broadening participation in certain 

National Science Foundation research and education programs, to collect data on Federal research grants to 

science agencies, 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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘STEM Research and 

3 Education Effectiveness and Transparency Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. BROADENING PARTICIPATION IN STEM PROGRAM 

5 EFFECTIVENESS. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 12 months after 

7 the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Na8 tional Science Foundation shall submit a report to Con9 gress on the effectiveness of all National Science Founda10 tion research and education programs for broadening the 

11 participation of women and other historically underrep12 resented individuals in STEM studies and careers, includ13 ing— 

14 (1) development or identification of perform15 ance metrics to evaluate such programs; 

16 (2) information on student outcomes using all 

17 available data, including dropout rates, enrollment in 

18 graduate programs, internships or apprenticeships, 

19 and employment; 

20 (3) identification of any data gaps for evalu21 ating the effectiveness and outcomes of National 

22 Science Foundation programs to broaden participa23 tion; and 

24 (4) recommendations for maintaining, trans25 lating, and disseminating outcomes data for STEM 


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1 programs funded by the National Science Founda2 tion. 

3 (b) DEFINITION OF STEM.—In this section, the 

4 term ‘‘STEM’’ has the meaning given the term in section 

5 2 of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 

6 2010 (42 U.S.C. 6621 note). 

7 SEC. 3. COLLECTION AND REPORTING OF DATA ON FED8 ERAL RESEARCH GRANTS. 

9 (a) COLLECTION OF DATA.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—Each Federal science agency 

11 shall collect standardized record-level annual infor12 mation on demographics, primary field, award type, 

13 review rating, budget request, funding outcome, and 

14 awarded budget for all applications for merit-re15 viewed research and development grants to institu16 tions of higher education and Federal laboratories 

17 supported by that agency. 

18 (2) UNIFORMITY AND STANDARDIZATION.—The 

19 Director shall establish a policy to ensure uniformity 

20 and standardization of the data collection required 

21 under paragraph (1). 

22 (3) RECORD-LEVEL DATA.— 

23 (A) REQUIREMENT.—On an annual basis, 

24 beginning with the deadline under subpara25 graph (C), each Federal science agency shall 


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1 submit to the Director of the National Science 

2 Foundation record-level data collected under 

3 paragraph (1) in the form required by such Di4 rector. 

5 (B) PREVIOUS DATA.—As part of the first 

6 submission under subparagraph (A), each Fed7 eral science agency, to the extent practicable, 

8 shall submit comparable record-level data for 

9 the 5 years preceding the deadline under sub10 paragraph (C). 

11 (C) DEADLINE.—The deadline under this 

12 paragraph is not later than 1 year after the 

13 date of enactment of this Act. 

14 (b) REPORTING OF DATA.—The Director of the Na15 tional Science Foundation shall publish statistical sum16 mary data collected under this section, disaggregated and 

17 cross-tabulated demographically and by years since com18 pletion of doctoral degree, including in conjunction with 

19 the National Science Foundation’s report required by sec20 tion 37 of the Science and Technology Equal Opportuni21 ties Act (42 U.S.C. 1885d; Public Law 96–516). 

22 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

23 (1) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

24 the Director of the Office of Science and Technology 

25 Policy. 


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1 (2) FEDERAL LABORATORY.—The term ‘‘Fed2 eral laboratory’’ has the meaning given that term in 

3 section 4 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Inno4 vation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3703). 

5 (3) FEDERAL SCIENCE AGENCY.—The term 

6 ‘‘Federal science agency’’ means any Federal agency 

7 with at least $100,000,000 in research and develop8 ment expenditures in fiscal year 2017. 

9 (4) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.—The 

10 term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 

11 meaning given such term in section 101(a) of the 

12 Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)). 

Passed the House of Representatives December 18, 

2017. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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