A Good Start: Rand Paul's bill requiring executive branch employees to disclose their royalty payments gets out of committee.

And it requires financial disclosures from members of government advisory committees. This bill is really important.

S. 3664. The Royalty Transparency Act of 2024

The Royalty Transparency Act of 2024 would require Executive Branch employees to disclose royalty payments for inventions developed during their employment with the federal government on financial disclosure reports.

BACKGROUND: Under current law, royalties received by federal employees in the performance of their official duties are not required to be reported on statutorily mandated public financial disclosure forms. Some federal employees, including high-profile figures like Dr. Fauci, receive significant royalty payments from companies with business before federal agencies. For example, NIH employees received 54,151 royalty payments totaling $325.8 million from 2009-2021. However, specific information on amounts, payers, and purposes remains undisclosed. The lack of transparency regarding the details of royalty payments raises significant conflict of interest concerns.

Additionally, while current law requires for public inspection of reports, agencies require interested individuals to email the agency directly or register for an online portal and request specific reports. Gaining access to these records is often a time consuming and tedious process where agencies regularly drag their feet on providing documents and answers. These burdensome requirements reduce public transparency and make it more difficult to hold federal employees accountable for conflicts of interest.

BILL SUMMARY:

• Requires royalty payments made to the U.S. Government that are passed through to federal employees be publicly reported in those employee’s financial disclosures.

• Makes members of the following federal advisory committees public filers for purposes of financial disclosure forms:  

  • National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity

  • Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

  • Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines

  • Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee

  • Defense Science Board

  • Board of Scientific Advisory of the National Cancer Institute

  • Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee

  • Medical Review Board Advisory Committee

  • President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

  • Any additional federal advisory committees that GAO determined issued recommendations related to public health and had a recommendation adopted by an agency or the President in the last 10 years.

• Requires the financial disclosure forms for public filers be published online.

• Provides additional congressional oversight of the financial disclosure filing system for executive branch employees.

• Provides additional oversight to prevent organization conflicts of interest in federal acquisition.