Invent Here, Make Here Act of 2024

118TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 1956 AN ACT To improve the commercialization of Federal research by domestic manufacturers, 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 2 † S 1956 ES SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Invent Here, Make 2 Here Act of 2024’’. 3 SEC. 2. IMPROVEMENT OF COMMERCIALIZATION OF FED- 4 ERAL RESEARCH BY DOMESTIC MANUFAC- 5 TURERS. 6 Section 2 of the National Institute of Standards and 7 Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 272) is amended by adding 8 at the end the following: 9 ‘‘(f) COMMERCIALIZATION OF FEDERAL RESEARCH 10 BY DOMESTIC MANUFACTURERS.—In order for the Insti- 11 tute to meet the need described in section 1(a)(1) and 12 most effectively carry out the activities under subsection 13 (c)(1) of this section, the Director shall— 14 ‘‘(1) coordinate with the Secretary of Defense, 15 the Secretary of Energy, the Director of the Na- 16 tional Science Foundation, and industry organiza- 17 tions to identify domestic manufacturers that can 18 develop commercial products based on completed re- 19 search conducted by Federal agencies; 20 ‘‘(2) work with the Administrator of the Small 21 Business Administration to identify domestic inves- 22 tors to support the development of commercial prod- 23 ucts based on research conducted by Federal agen- 24 cies; and 25 3 † S 1956 ES ‘‘(3) maintain a publicly accessible and search- 1 able database of domestic manufacturers and their 2 capabilities with respect to commercialization of fed- 3 erally funded research.’’. 4 SEC. 3. STUDY AND COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF COMMER- 5 CIALIZATION OF FEDERAL RESEARCH BY DO- 6 MESTIC MANUFACTURERS. 7 Not later than 540 days after the date of enactment 8 of this Act, the Director of the National Institute of 9 Standards and Technology shall— 10 (1) complete a study and comprehensive review 11 of the commercialization of Federal research by do- 12 mestic manufacturers that— 13 (A) addresses— 14 (i) what barriers currently (as of the 15 date on which the study is completed) exist 16 for domestic manufacturers to commer- 17 cialize Federal research; and 18 (ii) what role investment and the 19 availability of investors plays in the en- 20 couragement or discouragement of the 21 commercialization of Federal research by 22 domestic manufacturers; and 23 (B) provides recommendations for modi- 24 fications to the comprehensive strategic plan de- 25 4 † S 1956 ES veloped and implemented pursuant to section 1 107 of the American Innovation and Competi- 2 tiveness Act (15 U.S.C. 272 note) to ensure 3 that Federal science, engineering, and tech- 4 nology research is being transferred to domestic 5 manufacturers to modernize manufacturing 6 processes in accordance with section 2(b)(1) of 7 the National Institute of Standards and Tech- 8 nology Act (15 U.S.C. 272(b)(1)); and 9 (2) submit to the Committee on Commerce, 10 Science, and Transportation of the Senate, the Com- 11 mittee on the Judiciary of the Senate, the Com- 12 mittee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 13 House of Representatives, and the Committee on the 14 Judiciary of the House of Representatives a report 15 on the findings of the Director with respect to the 16 study and review completed under paragraph (1). 17 SEC. 4. PREFERENCE FOR UNITED STATES INDUSTRY. 18 Section 204 of title 35, United States Code, is 19 amended to read as follows: 20 ‘‘§ 204. Preference for United States industry 21 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 22 ‘‘(1) COUNTRY OF CONCERN.—The term ‘coun- 23 try of concern’ has the meaning given the term ‘cov- 24 ered nation’ in section 4872(d) of title 10. 25 5 † S 1956 ES ‘‘(2) RELEVANT CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT- 1 TEES.—The term ‘relevant congressional commit- 2 tees’ means— 3 ‘‘(A) the Committee on Commerce, 4 Science, and Transportation of the Senate; 5 ‘‘(B) the Committee on the Judiciary of 6 the Senate; 7 ‘‘(C) the Committee on Science, Space, and 8 Technology of the House of Representatives; 9 and 10 ‘‘(D) the Committee on the Judiciary of 11 the House of Representatives. 12 ‘‘(b) GENERAL PREFERENCE.—Notwithstanding any 13 other provision of this chapter, and subject to subsection 14 (c), no small business firm or nonprofit organization which 15 receives title to any subject invention and no assignee of 16 any such small business firm or nonprofit organization 17 shall grant to any person the exclusive right to use or sell 18 any subject invention in the United States unless such per- 19 son agrees that any products embodying the subject inven- 20 tion or produced through the use of the subject invention 21 will be manufactured substantially in the United States. 22 ‘‘(c) WAIVERS.— 23 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In individual cases, subject 24 to paragraphs (2) and (3), the Federal agency under 25 6 † S 1956 ES whose funding agreement the applicable subject in- 1 vention was made may waive the requirement for an 2 agreement described in subsection (b) upon a show- 3 ing by the applicable small business firm, nonprofit 4 organization, or assignee that reasonable but unsuc- 5 cessful efforts have been made to grant licenses on 6 similar terms to potential licensees that would be 7 likely to manufacture substantially in the United 8 States or that under the circumstances domestic 9 manufacture is not commercially feasible. 10 ‘‘(2) REVIEW TIMELINE.—Not later than 90 11 days after the date on which a Federal agency re- 12 ceives a request for a waiver described in paragraph 13 (1) and with respect to which paragraph (3) does 14 not apply, the Federal agency shall issue a decision 15 regarding whether to grant the request. 16 ‘‘(3) PROHIBITION ON GRANTING CERTAIN 17 WAIVERS WITHOUT PRESIDENTIAL AUTHORIZA- 18 TION.—If granting a waiver under paragraph (1) 19 would result in products embodying the applicable 20 subject invention or produced through the use of the 21 applicable subject invention being manufactured sub- 22 stantially in a country of concern, the applicable 23 Federal agency may not grant the waiver without 24 7 † S 1956 ES the written authorization of the President (or a des- 1 ignee of the President). 2 ‘‘(4) ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESSIONAL 3 COMMITTEES.— 4 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 5 after the date of enactment of the Invent Here, 6 Make Here Act of 2024, and annually there- 7 after, each Federal agency with respect to 8 which, during the preceding year, a nonprofit 9 organization or small business firm that is a 10 party to a funding agreement with the Federal 11 agency elected to retain title under section 202 12 to the subject invention that was the subject of 13 that funding agreement shall submit to the rel- 14 evant congressional committees a report that 15 includes the information described in subpara- 16 graph (B). 17 ‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—Each report required 18 under subparagraph (A) shall include, for the 19 period covered by the report— 20 ‘‘(i) with respect to each request re- 21 ceived by the applicable Federal agency for 22 a waiver under this subsection, information 23 regarding— 24 8 † S 1956 ES ‘‘(I) the subject invention that is 1 the subject of the request; 2 ‘‘(II) the efforts made by the en- 3 tity seeking the waiver to grant the 4 exclusive right to use or sell the appli- 5 cable subject invention to a person 6 that would agree that any products 7 embodying the subject invention or 8 produced through the use of the sub- 9 ject invention would be manufactured 10 substantially in the United States; 11 and 12 ‘‘(III) in which markets the prod- 13 ucts embodying the applicable subject 14 invention or produced through the use 15 of the applicable subject invention will 16 be sold; and 17 ‘‘(ii) with respect to a small business 18 firm or nonprofit organization that is 19 based in the United States and has elected 20 to retain title to a subject invention pursu- 21 ant to section 202, whether that firm or 22 organization intends to manufacture that 23 subject invention in a foreign country for 24 a foreign market. 25 9 † S 1956 ES ‘‘(C) PRESERVATION OF CONFIDEN- 1 TIALITY.—Each Federal agency that is required 2 to submit a report under this paragraph shall 3 preserve the confidentiality or trade sensitive 4 nature of all information included in each such 5 report.’’. 6 SEC. 5. AMENDMENTS TO THE DIRECTORATE FOR TECH- 7 NOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND PARTNERSHIPS. 8 Subtitle G of title III of the Research and Develop- 9 ment, Competition, and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 19101 10 et seq.) is amended— 11 (1) in section 10382— 12 (A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘and’’ 13 after the semicolon; 14 (B) in paragraph (3), by striking the pe- 15 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 16 (C) by adding at the end the following: 17 ‘‘(4) strongly encourage that products developed 18 through research funded by the Directorate will be 19 manufactured in the United States.’’; 20 (2) in section 10383— 21 (A) in paragraph (2), in the matter pre- 22 ceding subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘prod- 23 ucts,’’ and inserting ‘‘products that will be 24 manufactured in the United States,’’; 25 10 † S 1956 ES (B) in paragraph (4)(C), by inserting 1 ‘‘producing,’’ after ‘‘capable of’’; 2 (C) in paragraph (6), by striking ‘‘and’’ 3 after the semicolon; 4 (D) in paragraph (7), by striking the pe- 5 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 6 (E) by adding at the end the following: 7 ‘‘(8) develop industrial capacity to produce in- 8 novations competitively in the United States for the 9 global marketplace.’’; 10 (3) in section 10384— 11 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘and’’ 12 after the semicolon; 13 (B) in paragraph (2), by striking the pe- 14 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 15 (C) by adding at the end the following: 16 ‘‘(3) maximizes economic benefits by ensuring 17 that innovations developed from research awards are 18 produced in the United States.’’; 19 (4) in section 10385— 20 (A) in subsection (b)(1), by striking ‘‘and 21 commercialization’’ and inserting ‘‘commer- 22 cialization, and domestic production’’; and 23 11 † S 1956 ES (B) in subsection (c)(2), by striking ‘‘and 1 commercialization’’ and inserting ‘‘commer- 2 cialization, and domestic production’’; 3 (5) in section 10386(b)(2), by inserting ‘‘with 4 domestic manufacturing operations’’ after ‘‘private 5 sector’’; 6 (6) in section 10389(a), by striking ‘‘and com- 7 mercialization’’ and inserting ‘‘commercialization, 8 and domestic production’’; 9 (7) in section 10391(a), by striking ‘‘and com- 10 mercialization’’ and inserting ‘‘commercialization, 11 and domestic production’’; and 12 (8) in section 10394(f)(5), by striking ‘‘and, as 13 appropriate, commercializing’’ and inserting ‘‘, com- 14 mercializing, and producing’’. 15 Passed the Senate December 3, 2024. Attest: Secretary. 118TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 1956 AN ACT To improve the commercialization of Federal re- search by domestic manufacturers, and for other purposes.