I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3115
To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to the operation by
the National Institutes of Health of an experimental program to stimu-
late competitive research.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 20, 1999
Mr. ISTOOK (for himself, Mr. DICKEY, and Mr. WICKER) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to
the operation by the National Institutes of Health of
an experimental program to stimulate competitive re-
search.
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 ‘‘National Institutes of
Health EPSCoR Program Act of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. EPSCOR PROGRAM AT NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF
HEALTH.
Part A of title IV of the Public Health Service Act
(42 U.S.C. 281 et seq.) is amended—
(1) in section 402, by striking subsection (g)
and redesignating subsections (h) through (l) as sub-
sections (g) through (k); and
(2) by adding at the end the following section:
‘‘EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM TO STIMULATE COMPETITIVE
RESEARCH
‘‘SEC. 404E. (a) IN GENERAL.—
‘‘(1) ENHANCING RESEARCH COMPETITIVENESS
OF ELIGIBLE INSTITUTIONS.—The Director of NIH,
acting through the Director of the National Center
for Research Resources, shall in accordance with
this section establish a program for the purpose of
enhancing the competitiveness of eligible institutions
in obtaining funds from the national research insti-
tutes for conducting biomedical and behavioral re-
search.
‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE INSTITUTIONS; EPSCOR STATES,
COMMITTEES, AND FISCAL AGENTS.—For purposes
of this section:
‘‘(A) The term ‘eligible institution’ means
a research entity located in an EPSCoR State.
‘‘(B) The term ‘research entity’ means a
non-Federal entity that conducts biomedical or
behavioral research, including an individual or
organization.
‘‘(C) The term ‘EPSCoR State’ means a
State for which—
‘‘(i) the aggregate success rate for ap-
plications submitted to the national re-
search institutes by research entities in the
State has historically constituted a low
success rate of obtaining funds from such
institutes, relative to such aggregate rate
for research entities in other States; or
‘‘(ii) the average of the annual aggre-
gate amount of funds received for the five
preceding fiscal years by research entities
in such State pursuant to successful such
applications was not more than 1.08 per-
cent of the total amount that was received
during such years by research entities in
the States under grants, cooperative agree-
ments, and contracts awarded by the na-
tional research institutes to support the
conduct of biomedical and behavioral re-
search.
‘‘(E) The term ‘EPSCoR State fiscal
agent’ means a fiscal intermediary that has
been approved by an NIH EPSCoR committee
for a State, and that acts on behalf of such
committee by submitting applications to the
Federal Government for awards of grants, coop-
erative agreements, and contracts, and by dis-
bursing amounts from such awards.
‘‘(b) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE; RESEARCH PLANS.—
The Director of NIH may under subsection (a) enhance
the competitiveness of eligible institutions through (di-
rectly or by grant or contract)—
‘‘(1) providing technical assistance to such in-
stitutions, including technical assistance in the prep-
aration of applications for obtaining funds from the
national research institutes;
‘‘(2) assisting the institutions in developing a
plan for biomedical or behavioral research proposals;
and
‘‘(3) assisting the institutions in implementing
such plan.
‘‘(c) FORMULA GRANTS FOR INCREASING INSTITU-
TIONAL CAPACITY.—
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—In the case of each
EPSCoR State fiscal agent that in accordance with
paragraph (3) submits to the Director of NIH an
application for a fiscal year, the Director shall under
subsection (a) make an award of a grant or coopera-
tive agreement for the fiscal year to such agent for
disbursement to eligible institutions in such State to
carry out the purposes described in paragraph (2)
(subject to amounts being appropriated under sub-
section (e) for the fiscal year). The grant shall con-
sist of the allotment determined for the State under
paragraph (4).
‘‘(2) AUTHORIZED EXPENDITURES.—The pur-
poses referred to in paragraph (1) with respect to an
EPSCoR State are as follows:
‘‘(A) Improving the capacity of eligible in-
stitutions in the State to conduct biomedical
and behavioral research through providing for
faculty-related enhancement and development
programs (or other programs regarding profes-
sional staff); student programs; training pro-
grams; obtaining equipment, including instru-
mentation; obtaining facilities, including the
construction or renovation of facilities; estab-
lishing collaborative professional relationships
with other public or private research entities;
and other programs or activities determined by
the Director of NIH to be appropriate.
‘‘(B) Carrying out projects that will have
significant short-term impact with respect to
improving the capacity of the institutions to
conduct biomedical and behavioral research.
‘‘(3) APPLICATION FOR GRANT; CERTAIN RE-
QUIREMENTS.—An application under paragraph (1)
for an award for a fiscal year regarding an EPSCoR
State is in accordance with this paragraph if the fol-
lowing conditions are met:
‘‘(A) The application identifies the specific
needs of eligible institutions in the EPSCoR
State with respect to the purposes described in
subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (2),
including identifying the categories of research
that are to receive priority.
‘‘(B) The application contains a plan for
obtaining public or private funds (other than
from awards under paragraph (1)) to continue
in effect the improvements to be made with re-
spect to such institutions pursuant to the
award.
‘‘(C) The EPSCoR State fiscal agent
agrees that, not later than 60 days after the
end of the fiscal year, the agent will submit to
the Director of NIH a report describing the
purposes for which the award was obligated or
expended.
‘‘(D) The application meets such additional
requirements as the Director of NIH may es-
tablish, except that the Director may not re-
quire that non-Federal contributions be pro-
vided as a condition of receiving the award.
‘‘(E) The NIH EPSCoR committee for the
State has approved the application as ade-
quately meeting the conditions described in sub-
paragraphs (A) through (D).
‘‘(4) AMOUNT
OF
AWARD.—For purposes of
paragraph (1), an allotment for an EPSCoR State
for a fiscal year is determined in accordance with
this paragraph if the allotment is the quotient of—
‘‘(A) the amount appropriated under sub-
section (e) and available for awards under para-
graph (1); divided by
‘‘(B) the number of EPSCoR States for
which applications for awards under paragraph
(1) for the fiscal year are submitted in accord-
ance with paragraph (3).
‘‘(d) EPSCOR COFUNDING PROGRAM.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of NIH shall
under subsection (a) make awards of grants to eligi-
ble institutions for the purpose of carrying out
projects of research within categories identified
under subsection (c)(3)(A) as priorities for the eligi-
ble institutions involved.
‘‘(2) COFUNDING.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Director of NIH
may make an award under paragraph (1) only
if, in addition to such award, the project in-
volved will receive funding from one or more
other programs that are carried out by any of
the national research institutes (which other
programs are in this subsection referred to as
‘Coprograms’).
‘‘(B) ALLOCATION BETWEEN PROGRAMS.—
Of the total amount made available for a
project of an eligible institution pursuant to an
award under paragraph (1) and awards under
the Coprograms involved, not more than 50
percent may be provided in the award under
paragraph (1).
‘‘(3) PRIORITIES.—In making awards under
paragraph (1), the Director of NIH shall give pri-
ority to the following projects:
‘‘(A) Projects whose principal researchers
will be individuals who have not previously
served as principal researchers of projects sup-
ported by any of the national research insti-
tutes.
‘‘(B) With respect to the process for peer
review of applications for awards, projects
whose applications under Coprograms were ap-
proved in such process but whose rankings pre-
cluded the provision of awards.
‘‘(C) Projects that involve multiple areas of
research, each of which areas has, at the eligi-
ble institution involved, received funding under
this section.
‘‘(4) CERTAIN
REQUIREMENTS.—An award
under paragraph (1) may be made only if the appli-
cation for the award meets the following require-
ments:
‘‘(A) The application identifies the specific
activities to be carried out with respect to the
purpose described in paragraph (1).
‘‘(B) The application meets such additional
requirements as the Director of NIH may es-
tablish.
‘‘(C) The NIH EPSCoR committee for the
State has approved the application as meeting
the requirements under this paragraph, and as
being consistent with the strategy adopted by
the State with respect to the purpose described
in subsection (a)(1).
‘‘(e) FUNDING.—
‘‘(1) AUTHORIZATION
OF
APPROPRIATIONS.—
For the purpose of carrying out this section, there
are authorized to be appropriated $200,000,000 for
fiscal year 2000, and such sums as may be nec-
essary for each of the fiscal years 2001 through
2004.
‘‘(2) ALLOCATION REGARDING TECHNICAL AS-
SISTANCE AND RESEARCH PLANS.—Of the amounts
appropriated under paragraph (1) for a fiscal year,
the Director of NIH shall reserve 10 percent for car-
rying out subsection (b).
‘‘(3) 
ALLOCATION
REGARDING
FORMULA
GRANTS FOR INCREASING INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY;
ALLOCATION REGARDING COFUNDING PROGRAM.—Of
the amounts appropriated under paragraph (1) for
a fiscal year and available after compliance with
paragraph (2), the Director of NIH shall reserve 50
percent for awards under subsection (c) and 50 per-
cent for awards under subsection (d)(1).
‘‘(4) ADDITIONAL
FUNDING
FOR
COFUNDING
PROGRAM.—In addition to amounts reserved under
paragraph (3) for making awards under subsection
(d)(1), the Director of NIH shall reserve for making
such awards all savings in the indirect costs of
projects of research supported by the national re-
search institutes that are achieved as a result of car-
rying out projects in EPSCoR States rather than in
other States.’’.
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