Enabling More Penetrating Oversight When Examining Research for NIH Act of 2021 or the EMPOWER NIH Act of 2021

This bill requires annual, unannounced, in-person inspections of all nonfederal entities that receive funding, including through subawards, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to assess whether the funded research is consistent with the research proposal and otherwise meets record-keeping requirements and NIH standards.

The inspections are required even when an entity is located in a foreign country with a government that interferes with the inspection; entities that fail an inspection must return the full amount of NIH funding and lose eligibility for future NIH funding for at least five years.

The bill is effective on October 1, 2023, and applies to NIH funding awarded both before and after that date.