Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB1863 Compare Versions

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11 I
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION H. R. 1863
55 To require executive branch employees to report certain royalties, and for
66 other purposes.
77 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
88 MARCH5, 2025
99 Mr. G
1010 RIFFITHintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
1111 mittee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the
1212 Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined
1313 by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
1414 within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
1515 A BILL
1616 To require executive branch employees to report certain
1717 royalties, and for other purposes.
1818 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
1919 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2020 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2121 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Royalty Transparency 4
2222 Act’’. 5
2323 SEC. 2. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE REPORTS OF EXECUTIVE 6
2424 BRANCH EMPLOYEES. 7
2525 (a) I
2626 NDIVIDUALSREQUIREDTOFILE.— 8
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2929 •HR 1863 IH
3030 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 13103 of title 5, 1
3131 United States Code, is amended— 2
3232 (A) in subsection (f)— 3
3333 (i) in paragraph (11), by striking ‘‘; 4
3434 and’’ and inserting a semicolon; 5
3535 (ii) in paragraph (12), by striking the 6
3636 period and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 7
3737 (iii) by adding at the end the fol-8
3838 lowing: 9
3939 ‘‘(13) any member of— 10
4040 ‘‘(A) the National Science Advisory Board 11
4141 for Biosecurity; 12
4242 ‘‘(B) the Advisory Committee on Immuni-13
4343 zation Practices; 14
4444 ‘‘(C) the Advisory Commission on Child-15
4545 hood Vaccines; 16
4646 ‘‘(D) the National Vaccine Advisory Com-17
4747 mittee; 18
4848 ‘‘(E) the Vaccines and Related Biological 19
4949 Products Advisory Committee; 20
5050 ‘‘(F) the Defense Science Board; 21
5151 ‘‘(G) the Board of Scientific Advisors of 22
5252 the National Cancer Institute; 23
5353 ‘‘(H) the Homeland Security Science and 24
5454 Technology Advisory Committee; 25
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5757 •HR 1863 IH
5858 ‘‘(I) the Medical Review Board Advisory 1
5959 Committee; 2
6060 ‘‘(J) the President’s Council of Advisors on 3
6161 Science and Technology; or 4
6262 ‘‘(K) any other advisory committee, as de-5
6363 fined in section 1001, including a successor to 6
6464 a committee described in this paragraph, that 7
6565 the Government Accountability Office deter-8
6666 mines, in accordance with subsection (j)— 9
6767 ‘‘(i) makes recommendations relating 10
6868 to public health to an agency or the Presi-11
6969 dent; and 12
7070 ‘‘(ii) has had any recommendation 13
7171 fully or partially implemented during the 14
7272 10 years preceding the determination.’’; 15
7373 and 16
7474 (B) by adding at the end the following: 17
7575 ‘‘(j) D
7676 ETERMINATION REGARDINGADVISORYCOM-18
7777 MITTEES.—Not later than 180 days after the date of en-19
7878 actment of the Royalty Transparency Act, and annually 20
7979 thereafter, the Government Accountability Office shall 21
8080 publish a list of each advisory committee that the Govern-22
8181 ment Accountability Office determines— 23
8282 ‘‘(1) makes recommendations relating to public 24
8383 health to an agency or the President; and 25
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8686 •HR 1863 IH
8787 ‘‘(2) has had any recommendation fully or par-1
8888 tially implemented during the 10 years preceding the 2
8989 determination.’’. 3
9090 (2) S
9191 UNSET.—Effective on the date that is 5 4
9292 years after the date of enactment of this Act, section 5
9393 13103 of title 5, United States Code, as amended by 6
9494 this Act, is amended— 7
9595 (A) in subsection (f)(13), by striking sub-8
9696 paragraph (K) and inserting the following: 9
9797 ‘‘(K) a successor to a committee described 10
9898 in subparagraphs (A) through (J) of this para-11
9999 graph.’’; and 12
100100 (B) by striking subsection (j). 13
101101 (b) N
102102 OTIFICATION OFWAIVER.— 14
103103 (1) T
104104 ITLE 5.—Section 13103(i) of title 5, 15
105105 United States Code, is amended— 16
106106 (A) by moving the matter preceding para-17
107107 graph (1) two ems to the left; 18
108108 (B) by redesignating paragraphs (1) 19
109109 through (4) as subparagraphs (A) through (D), 20
110110 respectively; 21
111111 (C) in the matter preceding subparagraph 22
112112 (A), as so redesignated, by striking ‘‘the super-23
113113 vising ethics office determines’’ and inserting 24
114114 ‘‘the supervising ethics office— 25
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118118 ‘‘(1) determines’’; 1
119119 (D) in subparagraph (D), as so redesig-2
120120 nated, by striking the period at the end and in-3
121121 serting ‘‘; and’’; and 4
122122 (E) by adding at the end the following: 5
123123 ‘‘(2) provides notification of such waiver to the 6
124124 Committees on Homeland Security and Govern-7
125125 mental Affairs and Commerce, Science, and Trans-8
126126 portation of the Senate and the Committees on 9
127127 Oversight and Government Reform and Energy and 10
128128 Commerce of the House of Representatives.’’. 11
129129 (2) T
130130 ITLE 18.—Section 208 of title 18, United 12
131131 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 13
132132 following: 14
133133 ‘‘(e) Any exemption— 15
134134 ‘‘(1) granted under paragraph (1) or (3) of sub-16
135135 section (b) shall be immediately reported to the 17
136136 Committees on Homeland Security and Govern-18
137137 mental Affairs and Commerce, Science, and Trans-19
138138 portation of the Senate and the Committees on 20
139139 Oversight and Government Reform and Energy and 21
140140 Commerce of the House of Representatives, includ-22
141141 ing a detailed justification for granting the waiver; 23
142142 or 24
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146146 ‘‘(2) granted under subpart (C) of part 2640 of 1
147147 title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations, or any 2
148148 successor regulation, shall be immediately reported 3
149149 to the Committees on Homeland Security and Gov-4
150150 ernmental Affairs and Commerce, Science, and 5
151151 Transportation of the Senate and the Committees on 6
152152 Oversight and Government Reform and Energy and 7
153153 Commerce of the House of Representatives, includ-8
154154 ing a detailed justification for granting the waiver.’’. 9
155155 (c) C
156156 ONTENTS OFREPORTS.—Section 13104(a)(1) of 10
157157 title 5, United States Code, is amended— 11
158158 (1) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘, subject 12
159159 to subparagraph (C)’’ after ‘‘employment by the 13
160160 United States Government’’; and 14
161161 (2) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the fol-15
162162 lowing: 16
163163 ‘‘(C) R
164164 OYALTIES RECEIVED BY GOVERN -17
165165 MENT EMPLOYEES AND COMMITTEE FILERS .— 18
166166 Notwithstanding section 12(c) of the Stevenson- 19
167167 Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 20
168168 U.S.C. 3710a(c)) and section 209 of title 35, if 21
169169 the reporting individual is an officer or em-22
170170 ployee in the executive branch (including a spe-23
171171 cial Government employee, as defined in section 24
172172 202 of title 18), or an individual described in 25
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175175 •HR 1863 IH
176176 section 13103(f)(13), the original source and 1
177177 amount or value of any royalties received by the 2
178178 reporting individual, the spouse of the reporting 3
179179 individual, or a dependent child of the reporting 4
180180 individual during the reporting period described 5
181181 in subsection (d) or (e) of section 13103, as ap-6
182182 plicable, that were received as a result of an in-7
183183 vention developed by the reporting individual in 8
184184 the course of employment of the reporting indi-9
185185 vidual with the United States Government, in-10
186186 cluding any royalty interest payment made 11
187187 under the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 12
188188 1986 (Public Law 99–502; 100 Stat. 1785), an 13
189189 amendment made by such Act, or any other ap-14
190190 plicable authority.’’. 15
191191 (d) R
192192 EVIEW OFREPORTS.—Section 13107(b) of title 16
193193 5, United States Code, is amended— 17
194194 (1) in paragraph (1)— 18
195195 (A) in the first sentence, by inserting ‘‘and 19
196196 shall, in the case of an agency or office and not-20
197197 withstanding section 12 of the Stevenson- 21
198198 Wydler Technology Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 22
199199 3710a) and section 209 of title 35, publish such 23
200200 report on the internet website of the agency or 24
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203203 •HR 1863 IH
204204 office, as the case may be’’ after ‘‘to any person 1
205205 requesting such inspection or copy’’; and 2
206206 (B) in the second sentence— 3
207207 (i) by inserting ‘‘, notwithstanding 4
208208 section 12 of the Stevenson-Wydler Tech-5
209209 nology Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3710a) and 6
210210 section 209 of title 35,’’ after ‘‘such report 7
211211 shall’’; and 8
212212 (ii) by inserting ‘‘and, in the case of 9
213213 an agency or office, published on the inter-10
214214 net website of the agency or office, as the 11
215215 case may be,’’ after ‘‘made available for 12
216216 public inspection’’; 13
217217 (2) by striking paragraph (2) and the matter 14
218218 following paragraph (2); 15
219219 (3) by redesignating paragraph (3) as para-16
220220 graph (2); and 17
221221 (4) by adding at the end the following: 18
222222 ‘‘(3) P
223223 ROCEDURE FOR RELEASING REPORTS TO 19
224224 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS .—Notwithstanding any 20
225225 other provision of law, not later than 30 days after 21
226226 receiving a request from a Member of Congress, any 22
227227 agency or supervising ethics office in the executive 23
228228 branch shall furnish to the Member of Congress a 24
229229 copy of any report submitted under subsection (b), 25
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232232 •HR 1863 IH
233233 which shall be unredacted, except with respect to so-1
234234 cial security numbers, dates of birth, home address-2
235235 es, rental property addresses, phone numbers, email 3
236236 addresses, financial account numbers, signatures, 4
237237 and the personally identifiable information of de-5
238238 pendent children.’’. 6
239239 (e) C
240240 ONFIDENTIALREPORTS AND OTHERADDI-7
241241 TIONALREQUIREMENTS.—Section 13109 of title 5, 8
242242 United States Code, is amended— 9
243243 (1) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as 10
244244 subsections (f) and (g), respectively; and 11
245245 (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol-12
246246 lowing: 13
247247 ‘‘(b) R
248248 OYALTIESRECEIVED BYCONFIDENTIALFIL-14
249249 ERS.—Notwithstanding section 12(c) of the Stevenson- 15
250250 Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 16
251251 3710a(c)) and section 209 of title 35, the information re-17
252252 quired to be reported under this section shall include the 18
253253 original source and amount or value of any royalties re-19
254254 ceived by the reporting individual, or the spouse or any 20
255255 dependent child of the reporting individual, that were re-21
256256 ceived as a result of an invention, including any royalty 22
257257 interest payment made under the Federal Technology 23
258258 Transfer Act of 1986 (Public Law 99–502; 100 Stat. 24
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261261 •HR 1863 IH
262262 1785), an amendment made by such Act, or any other ap-1
263263 plicable authority. 2
264264 ‘‘(c) P
265265 ROCEDURE FOR RELEASINGREPORTS TO 3
266266 M
267267 EMBERS OF CONGRESS.—Notwithstanding any other 4
268268 provision of law, not later than 30 days after receiving 5
269269 a request from a Member of Congress, any agency or su-6
270270 pervising ethics office in the executive branch shall furnish 7
271271 to the Member of Congress a copy of any report submitted 8
272272 under subsection (a), which shall be unredacted, except 9
273273 with respect to social security numbers, dates of birth, 10
274274 home addresses, rental property addresses, phone num-11
275275 bers, email addresses, financial account numbers, signa-12
276276 tures, and the personally identifiable information of de-13
277277 pendent children. 14
278278 ‘‘(d) R
279279 EPORTS.—Not later than 60 days after the 15
280280 date of enactment of the Royalty Transparency Act, and 16
281281 each year thereafter, the head of each agency shall submit 17
282282 to the Committees on Homeland Security and Govern-18
283283 mental Affairs and Commerce, Science, and Transpor-19
284284 tation of the Senate and the Committees on Oversight and 20
285285 Government Reform and Energy and Commerce of the 21
286286 House of Representatives, and as to each agency within 22
287287 the intelligence community (as that term is defined in sec-23
288288 tion 3 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 24
289289 3003)), the head of each such agency shall also submit 25
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292292 •HR 1863 IH
293293 to the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate and 1
294294 the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the 2
295295 House of Representatives, a report relating to confidential 3
296296 financial disclosures of officers and employees under the 4
297297 jurisdiction of such agency for the preceding fiscal year, 5
298298 which shall include— 6
299299 ‘‘(1) the number of individuals who filed such 7
300300 disclosures with the agency under this section, in-8
301301 cluding, if applicable, the subcomponent of the agen-9
302302 cy that has jurisdiction over the individual and the 10
303303 reason for filing confidentially; 11
304304 ‘‘(2) the number of special Government employ-12
305305 ees, as defined in section 202 of title 18, that are 13
306306 required to file confidential financial disclosure re-14
307307 ports with the agency under this section; and 15
308308 ‘‘(3) any additional information determined to 16
309309 be relevant by the Director of the Office of Govern-17
310310 ment Ethics after consultation with the Committees 18
311311 on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 19
312312 and Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 20
313313 Senate and the Committees on Oversight and Gov-21
314314 ernment Reform and Energy and Commerce of the 22
315315 House of Representatives. 23
316316 ‘‘(e) P
317317 UBLICDISCLOSURE OFROYALTIESRECEIVED 24
318318 BYCERTAINFEDERALEMPLOYEES.— 25
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321321 •HR 1863 IH
322322 ‘‘(1) DEFINITION.—For the purposes of this 1
323323 subsection, the term ‘covered individual’ means an 2
324324 individual who— 3
325325 ‘‘(A) is required to file a confidential finan-4
326326 cial disclosure report under this section; and 5
327327 ‘‘(B) reports receiving a royalty interest 6
328328 under subsection (b). 7
329329 ‘‘(2) R
330330 EQUIREMENT.—Not later than 180 days 8
331331 after the date of enactment of the Royalty Trans-9
332332 parency Act, and annually thereafter, each agency 10
333333 shall publish a report on the internet website of the 11
334334 agency, listing— 12
335335 ‘‘(A) the names of all covered individuals; 13
336336 and 14
337337 ‘‘(B) the original source and amount or 15
338338 value of any royalties reported under this sec-16
339339 tion by each covered individual.’’. 17
340340 (f) R
341341 ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-18
342342 tion, or any amendment made by this section, shall be con-19
343343 strued to limit the ability of an advisory committee, as 20
344344 defined in section 1001 of title 5, United States Code, to 21
345345 conduct work related to the function of the advisory com-22
346346 mittee. 23
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349349 •HR 1863 IH
350350 SEC. 3. PREVENTING ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICTS OF IN-1
351351 TEREST IN FEDERAL ACQUISITION. 2
352352 (a) I
353353 NGENERAL.—The Federal Acquisition Regu-3
354354 latory Council and the Office of Management and Budget 4
355355 shall, as appropriate, enact or update any regulation nec-5
356356 essary to ensure that conflict of interest reviews for pro-6
357357 spective contractors or grantees include reviews of royal-7
358358 ties paid to prospective contractors or grantees in the pre-8
359359 ceding calendar year. 9
360360 (b) O
361361 NGOINGREVIEWS.—Not later than 1 year after 10
362362 the date of enactment of this Act, and each year there-11
363363 after, each agency conducting any conflict of interest re-12
364364 view described in subsection (a) shall report to the Com-13
365365 mittees on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 14
366366 and Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate 15
367367 and the Committees on Oversight and Government Re-16
368368 form and Energy and Commerce of the House of Rep-17
369369 resentatives, and as to each agency within the intelligence 18
370370 community (as that term is defined in section 3 of the 19
371371 National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003)), the 20
372372 head of each such agency shall also report to the Select 21
373373 Committee on Intelligence of the Senate and the Perma-22
374374 nent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of 23
375375 Representatives, on the number of identified cases of po-24
376376 tential conflict of interest related to royalty payments and 25
377377 the steps taken to mitigate those cases. 26
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380380 •HR 1863 IH
381381 SEC. 4. SEVERABILITY. 1
382382 If any provision of this Act, an amendment made by 2
383383 this Act, or the application of such provision or amend-3
384384 ment to any person or circumstance is held to be unconsti-4
385385 tutional, the remainder of this Act and the amendments 5
386386 made by this Act, and the application of the provision or 6
387387 the amendment to any other person or circumstance, shall 7
388388 not be affected. 8
389389 Æ
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