Sec. 102. Review of Federal regulations and reporting requirements
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The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy shall establish or designate a working group under the National Science and Technology Council with the responsibility of reviewing Federal regulatory and reporting requirements across Federal agencies that affect the conduct of United States research in an effort to reduce regulatory burdens and to eliminate and harmonize duplicative regulatory and reporting requirements. The working group established or designated under subsection
(a)shall— periodically review all Federal regulations and reporting requirements that affect the conduct of United States research to— identify ways to harmonize overlapping or duplicative research regulations and reporting requirements across Federal agencies; evaluate such regulations and reporting requirements in relationship to the risks the requirements seek to address to determine if the benefits of the requirements are commensurate with the costs to the progress of science or to the taxpayer; identify any regulations that are applied to scientific researchers or to research-performing institutions for which exemptions could be reasonably applied or for which adjustments could be made to better fit those regulations to diverse research environments; and identify any specific regulations which could be refocused on performance-based goals rather than on process while still meeting the desired outcome; examine the extent to which agencies’ guidance documents adhere with the most recently updated version of the Office of Management and Budget’s Agency Good Guidance Practices bulletin; and develop and update at least once every 3 years a strategic plan for streamlining Federal regulations and reporting requirements that affect the conduct of United States research that contains, at a minimum— a priority list of research-related regulations, reporting requirements, and agency guidance to be harmonized, streamlined, updated, or eliminated; and a plan, including a timeline, for implementing the regulatory and reporting reforms identified in subparagraph (A). In carrying out the responsibilities under subsection (b), including the development of the strategic plan under subsection (b)(3), the working group established or designated under subsection
(a)shall take into account input and recommendations from non-Federal stakeholders, including federally funded and nonfederally funded researchers, institutions of higher education, scientific disciplinary societies and associations, nonprofit research institutions, industry, including small businesses, federally funded research and development centers, and others with a stake in ensuring effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability in the performance of scientific research. The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, in collaboration with the Office of Management and Budget Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, shall encourage and monitor the efforts of the participating agencies to ensure that the strategic plan is developed under subsection (b)(3) and that appropriate steps are taken by the agencies to effectively implement the recommendations, achieve the objectives, and to adhere to the timeline in the strategic plan. Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy shall transmit the priority list and strategic plan developed under subsection (b)(3) to the Congress. The Director shall further provide a report annually to the Congress, to be submitted not later than 60 days after the submission of the President’s annual budget request, on the progress toward implementation of the regulatory reforms outlined in the strategic plan.