Committee adopts amendment and lays over bill to classify OJP research data as private

Senate File 3872, sponsored in committee as a Department of Public Safety/Office of Justice Programs policy bill, would classify certain OJP research data on individuals as private data to align with ethical standards for federally funded research. The bill also clarifies that case-support data collected by offices dealing with missing and murdered relative initiatives should be private.

Sponsor Senator Umu Verbat told the committee that summary statistics would remain public while person-level research data should be private; the A4 amendment adopted in committee enumerates identifying fields (name, address, email, telephone, date of birth, employer) that are to remain private so that survivors and research subjects are not exposed.

Committee members did not pose extended questions and the bill was laid over for additional work, with counsel available if members require further drafting changes.