[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5355 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5355

To amend the America COMPETES Act to prevent political interference in 
   the communication of scientific research, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            December 6, 2019

  Mr. Neguse (for himself, Ms. Bonamici, and Mr. Casten of Illinois) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                     Science, Space, and Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the America COMPETES Act to prevent political interference in 
   the communication of scientific research, 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 ``Stop Climate Censorship Act of 
2019''.

SEC. 2. PREVENTION OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN THE COMMUNICATION OF 
              SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.

    Title I of the America COMPETES Act is amended by adding at the end 
the following:

``SEC. 1010. PREVENTION OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE.

    ``(a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this section, the Director of the Office of Science and 
Technology Policy shall develop and issue policies, consistent with 
established scientific integrity policies, that require political 
appointees of each Federal civilian agency that conducts scientific 
research to publicly report on any action by such political appointee--
            ``(1) to modify any scientific research or findings that 
        are used to inform any agency communication to the public 
        relating to climate change; or
            ``(2) to modify any agency communication to the public in a 
        manner inconsistent with scientific research or findings 
        relating to climate change.
    ``(b) Contents of Report.--The report required under subsection (a) 
shall--
            ``(1) specify the specific individuals who were involved in 
        the decision to take such action;
            ``(2) describe the scientific evidence used to justify such 
        decision;
            ``(3) specify any other agency or individual consulted with 
        respect to such decision; and
            ``(4) be provided by such political appointee to the 
        appropriate committees of jurisdiction in Congress for the 
        respective agencies.
    ``(c) Review of Policies.--The Director of the Office of Science 
and Technology Policy shall review and update as necessary the policies 
described in this section on a biennial basis.
    ``(d) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Political appointee.--The term `political appointee' 
        means a Federal employee who holds--
                    ``(A) a position which has been excepted from the 
                competitive service by reason of its confidential, 
                policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating 
                character; or
                    ``(B) a position in the Senior Executive Service as 
                a noncareer appointee (as such term is defined in 
                section 3132(a) of title 5, United States Code).
            ``(2) Climate change.--The term `climate change' means any 
        change in the state of the global climate that can be 
        identified by changes in the mean or the variability of its 
        properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically 
        decades or longer.''.
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