RESEARCHER Act

This bill asks the Office of Science and Technology Policy to set clear, consistent guidelines for federal research agencies to help graduate researchers and postdoctoral researchers make ends meet. The guidelines focus on raising stipends (including adjusting for local cost of living), boosting pay for postdocs in rural or underserved areas and in EPSCoR-eligible states, and improving access to affordable health care, housing, transportation, food, and child care or other family care.

Agencies would be pushed to act quickly. After they receive the guidelines, each federal research agency would have six months to put its own policies in place and share them widely. The science office would monitor progress, update the guidelines as needed, and report to Congress one year after the guidelines are issued and every five years after that.

The bill also strengthens data and oversight. The National Science Foundation would fund studies to track financial instability among these researchers, broken down by demographics. The National Academies would study how stipends compare to local costs like health care, housing, transportation, food, and child care, and recommend fixes. The Government Accountability Office would review whether agencies followed the guidelines and how well they worked.

Key points

• Who is affected: Graduate researchers (students paid to do research while earning advanced degrees) and postdoctoral researchers (PhDs in training-focused research jobs) at federally funded universities.
• What changes: Federal guidelines to improve pay and reduce financial strain, with attention to health care, housing, transportation, food, and family care; extra support for postdocs in rural, underserved, and EPSCoR-eligible states.
• When: Guidelines due within 6 months of enactment; agencies implement within 6 months after receiving them; OSTP reports 1 year after guidelines and every 5 years; National Academies study launched within 2 years and reported 2 years later; GAO report due 3 years after enactment.