PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. (text of measure as introduced: CR S5462)
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Jun 24, 2010
Reward Innovation in America Act of 2010 - Amends the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 to authorize each head of a federal agency (other than a legislative agency) to carry out a program to award prizes competitively to stimulate innovation that has the potential to advance the agency's mission, including: (1) point solution prizes that reward and spur the development of solutions for a particular, well-defined problem; (2) exposition prizes that help identify and promote a broad range of ideas and practices that may not otherwise attract attention, facilitating further development of the idea or practice by third parties; and (3) participation prizes that create value by encouraging contestants to change their behavior or develop new skills that may have beneficial effects during and after the competition. Requires the agency head to: (1) widely advertise each competition to encourage broad participation; and (2) publish notices of competitions in the Federal Register.
Prohibits the government from gaining an interest in intellectual property developed by a participant in a competition without the written consent of the participant, but authorizes the government to negotiate a license for the use of intellectual property developed by a participant.
Authorizes: (1) an agency head to enter into an agreement with a private, nonprofit entity to administer competitions; and (2) support for a competition to consist of federal appropriated funds and funds provided by the private sector for cash prizes. Prohibits a prize from being announced until all funds needed to pay out the announced amount of the prize have been appropriated or committed in writing by a private source. Limits prize amounts.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Requires: (1) the General Services Administration (GSA) to provide government-wide services to share best practices and assist agencies in developing guidelines for issuing competitions; and (2) the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to submit annual reports on program activities.
People & committees
Sen. Pryor, Mark L. [D-AR] · D–AR
Legislative record
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. (text of measure as introduced: CR S5462)
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Sep 8, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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