Title: Missed Opportunities in Public Health and Biomedical Research Act of 2017
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Missed Opportunities in Public Health and Biomedical Research Act of 2017
This bill requires the National Institutes of Health to report annually on specified information relating to grant applications, specifically grant applications with potentially positive public health effects that were denied.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4353 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4353

  To amend the Public Health Service Act to require reporting by the 
  National Institutes of Health on requests for funding research that 
 were not granted and had the greatest potential for improving public 
                    health, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 9, 2017

Mr. Lewis of Georgia introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Public Health Service Act to require reporting by the 
  National Institutes of Health on requests for funding research that 
 were not granted and had the greatest potential for improving public 
                    health, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Missed Opportunities in Public 
Health and Biomedical Research Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. ANNUAL REPORTING BY NIH ON MISSED OPPORTUNITIES.

    The Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is amended by 
inserting after section 403D of such Act (42 U.S.C. 283a-3) the 
following:

``SEC. 403E. ANNUAL REPORTING ON MISSED OPPORTUNITIES.

    ``(a) In General.--Not later than the last day of the first fiscal 
quarter following the end of each fiscal year, the Director of NIH 
shall submit a report to Congress identifying, with respect to each 
national research institute, each national center, and the Office of 
the Director of NIH--
            ``(1) the success rate of grant applications reviewed 
        during such fiscal year;
            ``(2) the top two grant applications reviewed during such 
        fiscal year that were not funded; and
            ``(3) if the success rate described in paragraph (1) is 
        lower than 32 percent, the top grant applications that were 
        reviewed and could have been funded to achieve a success rate 
        of at least 32 percent.
    ``(b) Trade Secrets and Confidential Information.--This section 
does not authorize the Secretary to disclose any information that is a 
trade secret or confidential information subject to section 552(b)(4) 
of title 5, United States Code, or section 1905 of title 18, United 
States Code.
    ``(c) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) The term `success rate' means the percentage of grant 
        applications reviewed during the respective fiscal year that 
        received funding.
            ``(2) The term `top' means having the greatest potential 
        for--
                    ``(A) improving public health;
                    ``(B) advancing biomedical and behavioral research; 
                and
                    ``(C) increasing fundamental knowledge about the 
                nature and behavior of living systems, and the 
                application of that knowledge towards enhancing health, 
                lengthening life, and reducing illness and 
                disability.''.
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