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The bill centralizes NCSES planning authority to build capacity and allow more flexible, timely data collection, at the cost of removing statutory survey mandates — increasing risks that some important surveys may be delayed, deprioritized, or lose comparability over time.
Scientists, researchers, and policymakers gain a formal NCSES plan to build data collection and analysis capacity, improving the quality of future statistics and evidence available for science policy decisions.
Scientists, researchers and state governments benefit from giving the NCSES Director discretion to set survey priorities, enabling more flexible and timely data collection aligned with current needs.
Scientists, researchers and state governments lose statutory guarantees for specific assessments and surveys, reducing mandated transparency and shifting what gets studied to internal NCSES discretion — which could delay or deprioritize topics important to stakeholders.
Federal employees and researchers could face less predictable attention or funding for particular surveys, weakening data continuity and comparability over time and undermining program planning and oversight.
Replaces a prior statutory requirement that the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) submit the results of an assessment and conduct enumerated surveys with a requirement that NCSES produce a plan to establish and sustain a data collection and analytical capability. The change narrows the previous list of mandatory survey topics and leaves remaining choices to the discretion of the NCSES Director.
Introduced January 14, 2026 by Hillary Scholten · Last progress January 14, 2026