Bill > HR5721

This bill, the VA Infrastructure Powers Exceptional Research Act of 2021 or the VIPER Act of 2021, aims to improve research conducted within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The key provisions of the bill include: 1. Exempting the VA's research activities from the Paperwork Reduction Act, which regulates the collection of information by federal agencies. 2. Establishing an Office of Research and Development within the VA's Veterans Health Administration to oversee a full spectrum of research, including pre-clinical, clinical, and health systems science, as well as technology transfer and application. 3. Allowing the VA Secretary to waive certain limits on the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Mobility Program, which enables the temporary assignment of personnel between the federal government and state/local governments or institutions of higher education. 4. Permitting VA employees with research appointments to receive compensation from non-profit corporations established under the VA or affiliated universities for their research work, subject to certain conditions. 5. Expanding the VA's hiring authorities to include statisticians, economists, informaticists, and data scientists in addition to existing research-related occupations.