H.R. 1863 — Royalty Transparency Act

This section amends the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. §§ 13101 et seq.) to require financial disclosure reports from members of 10 specified advisory committees relating to public health, vaccines, cancer, defense science, homeland security, and other areas (i.e., National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity; Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices; Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines; National Vaccine Advisory Committee; Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee; Defense Science Board; Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute; Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee; Medical Review Board Advisory Committee; and President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) and any other advisory committee determined by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to have made implemented public health recommendations to an agency or the President in the prior 10 years. It further (1) directs GAO to publish an annual list of such committees within 180 days of enactment (sunsetting after 5 years, at which point only successors to the 10 specified committees remain covered); (2) requires supervising ethics offices to notify four specified congressional committees of any filing waivers, with immediate reporting also required under 18 U.S.C. § 208 for certain conflict-of-interest exemptions; (3) mandates disclosure in reports of royalties received by executive branch officers or employees (including special government employees), their spouses, or dependent children from inventions developed during government employment (notwithstanding 15 U.S.C. 3710a(c) and 35 U.S.C. § 209, which previously exempted such information); and (4) requires agencies and offices to publish these reports on their websites (again notwithstanding 15 U.S.C. 3710a and 35 U.S.C. § 209). (Thus, federal laboratory employees and advisory committee members who receive royalty payments under federal technology transfer authorities must publicly disclose the source and value of such income.)

This section directs the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council and the Office of Management and Budget to enact or update regulations, as appropriate, requiring conflict of interest reviews for prospective contractors or grantees to include royalties paid to them in the preceding calendar year. It further requires each agency conducting such reviews to submit annual reports, beginning not later than one year after enactment, to the Senate Committees on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Committees on Oversight and Government Reform and Energy and Commerce—and, for intelligence community agencies, also to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence—detailing the number of identified potential conflicts of interest related to royalty payments and steps taken to mitigate them.

This section establishes a severability clause, providing that if any provision of the Act or its amendments, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act and its amendments, and their application to other persons or circumstances, shall not be affected.