NIST Reorganization Bill Heads to White House

House OK's America COMPETES Reauthorization Act Eric Chabrow (GovInfoSecurity) • December 21, 2010

Codification of the reorganization of the National Institute of Standards and Technology is on its way to the White House for President Obama's signature.

The House, which initially passed the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 last May, approved a revised version of the bill Tuesday altered by the Senate last week. The bill primarily funds science and technology research and education projects, but includes provisions for the first major reorganization of NIST in a generation.

The reorganization reduces to six from 10 the number of laboratories - the main research and development components at NIST. The bill promotes the NIST director to undersecretary for standards and technology in the Department of Commerce, where NIST is situated..

The legislation essentially keeps intact the Information Technology Laboratory, the NIST unit that provides IT and cybersecurity guidance to federal agencies. The restructuring of the other labs is patterned after the interdisciplinary way the IT Lab functions.

Not knowing if the Senate would ever pass the bill, NIST announced in September it would initiate the reorganization without a new law, citing a provision in the appropriations act that funds NIST to allow the restructuring.

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An earlier version of this story stated that the bill also prevents the government from ordering private companies to follow IT security guidance developed by NIST. That provision existed in an earlier version of the legislation, but is absent from the one that passed both houses.