Conference Committee pressed to adopt Safeguarding American Innovation Act in light of massive NIH grant recipient failures to disclose foreign ties

After an Inspector General report found that more than two-thirds of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant recipients failed to disclose foreign ties, U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) urged legislative action this week to punish those who fail to reveal foreign financing.

“The HHS OIG (Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General) report finding more than two-thirds of NIH grant recipients failed to meet foreign financial disclosure requirements as well as at least one instance of a U.S. taxpayer-funded researcher failing to disclose ties to the Chinese government reinforces the need to ensure my Senate-passed, bipartisan Safeguarding American Innovation Act is included in the USICA conference report,” Portman, ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said. “My bipartisan legislation would allow the federal government to punish individuals who intentionally fail to disclose foreign support on federal grant applications while also mandating a standardized U.S. government grant process. Any conference report with significant increased levels of federal funding for research without the protections included in the Safeguarding American Innovation Act would be a huge giveaway to Beijing. We must do everything possible to stop foreign governments from stealing our research and innovation.”

NIH grants are taxpayer-funded. According to an investigation helmed by Portman when he was chair of the Homeland Security committee, American taxpayers contribute over $150 billion each year to scientific research in the United States through various means. According to the OIG, many recipients have failed to disclose non-publicly traded equity interests from foreign entities and in-kind resources, professional affiliations, or more.

While some of this could be chalked up to grantees uncertain whether or how to disclose requirements applied to certain grants, as many as 10 percent of grantees did not perform required reviews to determine whether investigators’ foreign financial interests were conflicts that could bias their research.

Portman’s Safeguarding American Innovation Act (S.B. 1351) was introduced last year as part of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. That bill seeks investments of more than $100 billion into scientific and technological innovation linked to national security and economic competitiveness while requiring federal grant applicants to disclose compensation from foreign governments.

The OIG report seemed to back some of these ends, noting that additional oversight is needed for grant programs. It called for more specific oversight requirements, though indicated hope spurred by promising practices some have begun to adopt, including providing written guidance and training on investigators’ disclosures of foreign support, as well as taking steps to validate investigators’ reports or identify financial interests and support that those investigators failed to note.

The OIG noted that most grantees have failed to meet at least one federal requirement related to their investigators’ foreign financial interests and support.