Sponsors (6)
The bill builds ongoing, flexible federal capacity to produce timely workforce and research statistics that improve policymaking, but it removes statutory topic-specific study guarantees and creates new resource demands that could limit transparency and require funding trade-offs.
Scientists, researchers, and data users gain a sustained NCSES data-collection and analytic capability that produces regular, usable statistics to support planning and evaluation of the research and STEM workforce.
Policymakers and Congress receive a concrete, ongoing plan to build NCSES data capacity rather than a one-time assessment, improving the long-term evidence base for workforce and research policy decisions.
Tech workers and researchers benefit from broader NCSES flexibility to collect data on emerging topics, enabling timelier responses to new workforce and research questions.
Workers in sensitive areas (e.g., workplace harassment) and the public may see fewer guaranteed studies because the bill removes statutory requirements to assess feasibility and benefits for specific topics, reducing mandated transparency.
Giving the NCSES Director broader discretion over topic selection could deprioritize topics of public interest (such as harassment or immigration impacts), limiting data availability for affected workers and advocates.
Establishing and maintaining the new data-collection capacity may require NSF/NCSES resources or additional appropriations, potentially diverting funding from other projects or increasing costs for taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Replaces a mandated assessment of specific NCSES survey topic modules with a requirement to submit a plan to build and maintain internal data collection and analytic capability, leaving topic choice to the Director's discretion.
Introduced January 14, 2026 by Hillary Scholten · Last progress January 14, 2026
Amends 42 U.S.C. § 18994(b)(2) to replace a required assessment of specific survey topic modules with a requirement that the Director of the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics submit a plan to initiate and maintain an internal data collection and analytic capability. The change removes a mandated list of example topics and gives the Director broader discretion to choose what topics to collect and analyze. The bill does not appropriate funds or specify a timeline or topics; it changes the type of reporting required (assessment results → operational plan) and centralizes authority over topic selection within the Director's discretion.