H.R. 1709 would recodify existing federal activities related to scientific integrity. The bill would require agencies that fund, conduct, or oversee scientific research to adopt a scientific integrity policy and submit their policies to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) for approval. The bill also would direct each agency to appoint a scientific integrity officer, establish a scientific integrity training program, and report annually on misconduct. In addition, OSTP would be required to convene annual meetings of scientific integrity officers to discuss best practices and to make related information publicly available.
CBO expects that implementing the bill would increase administrative expenses for many federal agencies. Using information from OSTP and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), CBO estimates that 19 agencies would be affected by the bill; several already conduct the required activities.[1] On that basis, and considering the additional workload required under H.R. 1709, CBO estimates that the federal government would incur costs of $2 million in 2020 and less than $1 million annually thereafter, mostly for additional staff. H.R. 1709 also would require GAO to review how the policies are implemented. Based on the costs of similar tasks, CBO estimates that the review would cost less than $500,000.
In total, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 1709 would cost $5 million over the 2020-2024 period; such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
[1]. See Government Accountability Office, Scientific Integrity Policies: Additional Actions Could Strengthen Integrity of Federal Research, GAO 19-265(April 2019), www.gao.gov/products/GAO-19-265; and Institute for Defense Analyses, Review of Federal Agency Policies on Scientific Integrity (December 2016), https://tinyurl.com/y4vdzulx.
