Stop Climate Censorship Act of 2019

I 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) intro- duced 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 Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stop Climate Censor- 4 ship Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. PREVENTION OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN THE 6 COMMUNICATION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 7 Title I of the America COMPETES Act is amended 8 by adding at the end the following: 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:11 Dec 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5355.IH H5355 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 5355 IH ‘‘SEC. 1010. PREVENTION OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE. 1 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after 2 the date of the enactment of this section, the Director of 3 the Office of Science and Technology Policy shall develop 4 and issue policies, consistent with established scientific in- 5 tegrity policies, that require political appointees of each 6 Federal civilian agency that conducts scientific research 7 to publicly report on any action by such political ap- 8 pointee— 9 ‘‘(1) to modify any scientific research or find- 10 ings that are used to inform any agency communica- 11 tion to the public relating to climate change; or 12 ‘‘(2) to modify any agency communication to 13 the public in a manner inconsistent with scientific 14 research or findings relating to climate change. 15 ‘‘(b) CONTENTS OF REPORT.—The report required 16 under subsection (a) shall— 17 ‘‘(1) specify the specific individuals who were 18 involved in the decision to take such action; 19 ‘‘(2) describe the scientific evidence used to jus- 20 tify such decision; 21 ‘‘(3) specify any other agency or individual con- 22 sulted with respect to such decision; and 23 ‘‘(4) be provided by such political appointee to 24 the appropriate committees of jurisdiction in Con- 25 gress for the respective agencies. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:11 Dec 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5355.IH H5355 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 5355 IH ‘‘(c) REVIEW OF POLICIES.—The Director of the Of- 1 fice of Science and Technology Policy shall review and up- 2 date as necessary the policies described in this section on 3 a biennial basis. 4 ‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 5 ‘‘(1) POLITICAL APPOINTEE.—The term ‘polit- 6 ical appointee’ means a Federal employee who 7 holds— 8 ‘‘(A) a position which has been excepted 9 from the competitive service by reason of its 10 confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, 11 or policy-advocating character; or 12 ‘‘(B) a position in the Senior Executive 13 Service as a noncareer appointee (as such term 14 is defined in section 3132(a) of title 5, United 15 States Code). 16 ‘‘(2) CLIMATE CHANGE.—The term ‘climate 17 change’ means any change in the state of the global 18 climate that can be identified by changes in the 19 mean or the variability of its properties, and that 20 persists for an extended period, typically decades or 21 longer.’’. 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:11 Dec 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5355.IH H5355 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS