I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4230 
To require the timely publication of any research source code and data 
used by a Federal agency in assessing the costs and benefits of new 
regulations, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 2, 2017 
Mr. MEADOWS (for himself, Mr. MACARTHUR, Mr. BIGGS, Mr. NORMAN, Mr. 
YOHO, Mr. PERRY, Mr. JORDAN, and Mr. BUCK) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To require the timely publication of any research source 
code and data used by a Federal agency in assessing 
the costs and benefits of new regulations, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Comprehensive Listing 
of Evidence for Assessments of Regulations Act’’ or the 
‘‘CLEAR Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT TO PUBLISH RESEARCH SOURCE 
CODE AND DATA. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—At any time during a rulemaking 
process that an assessment of any new regulation is com-
pleted, including the costs and benefits of such regulation, 
and not later than the issuance of such rule, the head of 
each agency, to enable entities outside the Federal Govern-
ment to replicate the assessment, shall publish the fol-
lowing related to such assessment: 
(1) Any research source code and data used by 
that agency, including— 
(A) any program used for any model, in-
cluding intermediate and final; 
(B) any source code, data, and other mate-
rials used for any estimate or assumption used 
as a component in the overall model; and 
(C) each data preparation routine, includ-
ing cleaning, statistical matching, replacement 
of missing data with substituted values, and 
other data steps used in turning raw data into 
the data set used and the assessment. 
(2) Any unprocessed data that is not prohibited 
from disclosure by statute. 
(3) With regard to any unprocessed data that 
is prohibited from disclosure by statute— 
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(A) a complete list of all data variables for 
such data; and 
(B) descriptive statistics for all data vari-
ables for such data (including averages, stand-
ard deviations, number of observations, and cor-
relations to other variables), in lieu of but anal-
ogous to the original data, to allow the research 
source code and data to function as intended. 
(4) Any supplemental documentation, including 
that which documents— 
(A) changes to the methodology and 
changes between versions of software implemen-
tation code; and 
(B) instructions that are sufficient to allow 
an individual outside of the Federal Govern-
ment or not employed by the agency to run the 
model on their own. 
(b) ISSUANCE TO CONGRESS.—If the result of an as-
sessment described in subsection (a) is requested privately 
and is issued to a Member of Congress or to a committee, 
such source code, data, and other materials shall be re-
leased to the private recipient, who may then choose to 
release the information publicly. 
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(c) AGENCY DEFINED.—In this section, the term 
‘‘agency’’ has the meaning given that term in section 551 
of title 5, United States Code. 
(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This Act shall take effect 6 
months after the date of the enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
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