# 119-hr-3054: RESEARCHER Act

119-hr-3054, RESEARCHER Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Rep. McClellan, Jennifer L. [D-VA-4] (D-VA); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-10-30).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3054
- As of: 2026-10-30
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-hr-3054
- Congress: 119
- Title: RESEARCHER Act
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2025-04-29
- Sponsor: Rep. McClellan, Jennifer L. [D-VA-4] (D-VA)
- Cosponsors: 22
- Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-10-30

## Summary

**Stabilize pay and basic living supports for graduate and postdoctoral researchers nationwide.** The RESEARCHER Act would direct the Office of Science and Technology Policy to craft uniform guidelines for federal research agencies to help raise stipends, expand healthcare and caregiving supports, and collect detailed data on researcher financial instability. - Graduate researchers and postdoctoral researchers would see policies aimed at higher stipends, including indexing pay by location, targeted increases for postdocs in rural or EPSCoR-eligible States, and improved access to affordable medical, dental, and vision care, housing, transportation, food assistance, and child care. - Institutions and federal funders would be required to adopt and publicize policies consistent with OSTP guidance and the National Science Foundation would fund competitive awards to collect stipend amounts and demographic data on financial instability. - The research and oversight community would get new studies and reviews: a National Academies assessment within 2 years with a five-year retrospective on stipend adequacy and a Government Accountability Office study within 3 years on guideline implementation and gaps.

## Cosponsors (22)

- Rep. DelBene, Suzan K. [D-WA-1] (D-WA), 2025-04-29T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Tlaib, Rashida [D-MI-12] (D-MI), 2025-04-29T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Pingree, Chellie [D-ME-1] (D-ME), 2025-04-29T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Lee, Summer L. [D-PA-12] (D-PA), 2025-04-29T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Tokuda, Jill N. [D-HI-2] (D-HI), 2025-04-29T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Thanedar, Shri [D-MI-13] (D-MI), 2025-04-29T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Bonamici, Suzanne [D-OR-1] (D-OR), 2025-04-29T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Tonko, Paul [D-NY-20] (D-NY), 2025-04-29T00:00:00.000Z
- Del. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large] (D-DC), 2025-04-29T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick, Sheila [D-FL-20] (D-FL), 2025-04-29T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Frost, Maxwell [D-FL-10] (D-FL), 2025-04-29T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Foster, Bill [D-IL-11] (D-IL), 2025-04-29T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Soto, Darren [D-FL-9] (D-FL), 2025-07-23T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Riley, Josh [D-NY-19] (D-NY), 2025-09-30T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Neguse, Joe [D-CO-2] (D-CO), 2025-10-08T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Cleaver, Emanuel [D-MO-5] (D-MO), 2026-10-26T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Friedman, Laura [D-CA-30] (D-CA), 2026-02-10T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Evans, Dwight [D-PA-3] (D-PA), 2026-02-11T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Latimer, George [D-NY-16] (D-NY), 2026-05-12T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Cohen, Steve [D-TN-9] (D-TN), 2026-06-08T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Vindman, Eugene Simon [D-VA-7] (D-VA), 2026-06-08T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. McBride, Sarah [D-DE-At Large] (D-DE), 2026-09-03T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Pay and support rules for grads and postdocs: benefit, low. If enacted, the White House science office would set guidelines within six months to ease money stress for graduate and postdoctoral researchers. Federal research agencies would then have six months to adopt matching policies and share them widely with grant recipients. The guidelines would look at…
- GAO review of agency guideline rollout: benefit, low. If enacted, the Government Accountability Office would report to Congress within three years on how well agencies carried out the new guidelines. The report would judge implementation and effectiveness. It would also recommend policy changes and any extra data needed to track progress on reducing m…
- Studies on graduate and postdoc finances: benefit, low. If enacted, the National Science Foundation would give competitive grants to colleges and nonprofits to study money stress among graduate and postdoctoral researchers. Grantees would collect data, broken out by demographics when possible. NSF would also sign an agreement within two years with the N…

## Related bills

- 119-hr-7973: Momnibus Act
- 119-hr-51: Washington, D.C. Admission Act
- 119-hr-20: Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2025
- 119-hr-5390: FAMILY Act
- 119-hr-15: Equality Act
- 119-hr-7531: Healthy Families Act

## Sources
- [119-hr-3054 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/3054)

## Related
- [119-hr-7973: Momnibus Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-7973)
- [119-hr-51: Washington, D.C. Admission Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-51)
- [119-hr-20: Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-20)
- [119-hr-5390: FAMILY Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-5390)
- [119-hr-15: Equality Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-15)
- [119-hr-7531: Healthy Families Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-7531)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3054 (as of 2026-10-30).