42 U.S.C. § 19231 — Requirements for foreign talent recruitment programs

(a) Purpose: This part of the law aims to stop two things: federal research agency staff joining any foreign talent recruitment program at all, and "covered individuals" who work on federally funded research joining a malign (harmful) foreign talent recruitment program. (b) Guidance: Within 180 days of August 9, 2022, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), working with an interagency working group set up under an earlier law, must write and widely share one set of guidelines for federal research agencies about foreign talent recruitment programs. These guidelines must: 1. Ban all agency personnel — federal employees, contract workers, independent contractors, people serving under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, Visiting Scientist, Engineer, and Educator appointees, and special government employees other than peer reviewers — from joining any foreign talent recruitment program. 2. Require covered individuals, as part of separate disclosure rules (section 6605), to say whether they have a contract or agreement tied to a foreign talent recruitment program. 3. Block research and development awards for any proposal where a covered individual is part of a malign foreign talent recruitment program. 4. As much as practical, require institutions that get awards to keep covered individuals who are in malign programs off of work funded by the award. (c) Definition of foreign talent recruitment programs: As part of the guidance in (b), the OSTP Director must spell out what counts as a foreign talent recruitment program. (d) Implementation: Within one year of August 9, 2022, every federal research agency must issue its own policy using the (b) guidelines. (e) Consistency: The OSTP Director must make sure all the agencies' policies under (d) match each other as closely as practical.