STUDY AND REPORT BY NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

SEC. 301. STUDY AND REPORT BY NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. (a) Study.—The National Academy of Sciences shall conduct a comprehensive study of the Department of Health and Human Services’ data collection systems and practices, and any data collection or reporting systems required under any of the programs or activities of the Department, relating to the collection of data on race or ethnicity, including other Federal data collection systems (such as the Social Security Administration) with which the Department interacts to collect relevant data on race and ethnicity. (b) Report.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the National Academy of Sciences shall prepare and submit to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives, a report that— (1) identifies the data needed to support efforts to evaluate the effects of socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity on access to health care and other services and on disparity in health and other social outcomes and the data needed to enforce existing protections for equal access to health care; (2) examines the effectiveness of the systems and practices of the Department of Health and Human Services described in subsection (a), including pilot and demonstration projects 114 STAT. 2508of the Department, and the effectiveness of selected systems and practices of other Federal, State, and tribal agencies and the private sector, in collecting and analyzing such data; (3) contains recommendations for ensuring that the Department of Health and Human Services, in administering its entire array of programs and activities, collects, or causes to be collected, reliable and complete information relating to race and ethnicity; and (4) includes projections about the costs associated with the implementation of the recommendations described in paragraph (3), and the possible effects of the costs on program operations. (c) Authorization of Appropriations.—For the purpose of carrying out this section, there are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary for fiscal year 2001.