Standards

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) administers programs to provide a consistent system of physical measurement in the United States and ensure that evaluated scientific and technical data are readily available to scientists, engineers, and the general public.

The NIST also serves as an information center and referral service by maintaining a reference collection of specifications, regulations, certification rules, directories, reference books and special publications. Other agencies, like the Department of Labor maintain standards to protect the wages of working individuals by requiring a minimum hourly wage rate and overtime pay.

Click on any title below to read more about the program.

11.550 Public Telecommunications Facilities_Planning and Construction - Objective: To assist in the planning, acquisition, installation and modernization of public telecommunications facilities, through planning grants and matching construction grants, in order to: a) extend delivery of public telecommunications services to as many citizens of the United States and territories as possible by the most efficient and economical means, including the use of broadcast and non-broadcast technologies; b) increase public telecommunications services and facilities available to, operated by and owned by minorities and women; and c) strengthen the capability of existing public television and radio stations to provide public telecommunications service to the public. Click here for more information

11.552 Technology Opportunities - Objective: To promote the widespread use and availability of advanced telecommunications and information technologies in the public and nonprofit sectors. By providing matching grants for information infrastructure projects, this program will help develop a nationwide, interactive, multimedia information infrastructure that is accessible to all citizens, in rural areas as well as urban areas. Click here for more information

	11.601 Calibration Program - Objective: To provide a consistent system of physical measurement in the United States of America. Click here for more information

	11.603 National Standard Reference Data System - Objective: To make evaluated scientific and technical data readily available to scientists, engineers, and the general public. Click here for more information

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11.604 Standard Reference Materials - Objective: Standard reference materials are certified and issued by NIST to develop accurate methods of analysis; to calibrate measurement systems used to: (1) facilitate the exchange of goods, (2) institute quality control, (3) determine material performance characteristics, (4) measure materials at state-of-the-art limits, and (5) assure the long-term adequacy and integrity of measurement quality assurance programs. Click here for more information

	11.606 Weights and Measures Service - Objective: To provide leadership and technical resources to assure the accuracy of the quantities and quantity representations in all commercial transactions in the United States, and to promote a uniform national weights and measures system. Click here for more information

	11.609 Measurement and Engineering Research and Standards - Objective: To provide scientific research and technology transfer for measurement and engineering research and standards. Click here for more information

11.610 National Center for Standards and Certification Information - Objective: To serve as an information center and referral service, by maintaining a reference collection of standards and specifications, regulations, certification rules, directories, reference books and special publications. To respond to inquiries, develop and publish lists, bibliographies, indexes, and directories of standards and related information, and to provide trade related regulations and certification information to U.S. exporters and manufacturers. Click here for more information

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11.611 Manufacturing Extension Partnership - Objective: To establish, maintain, and support manufacturing extension centers and services, the functions of which are to improve the competitiveness of firms accelerating the usage of appropriate manufacturing technology by smaller U.S. based manufacturing firms, and partner with the States in developing such technical assistance programs and services for their manufacturing base. Click here for more information

	11.612 Advanced Technology Program - Objective: To work in partnership with industry to foster the development and broad dissemination of challenging, high-risk technologies that offer the potential for significant, broad-based economic benefits for the nation. Click here for more information

17.303 Wage and Hour Standards - Objective: To provide standards protecting wages of working persons by requiring a minimum hourly wage rate and overtime pay, or prevailing hourly wage rates, fringe benefits and overtime pay under the Government Contract Acts. Additional standards apply to child labor, to wage payment standards for professional performers and related or supporting professional employees of productions assisted by grants from the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, to curtail employer use of lie detector tests, including polygraph tests, for pre-employment screening or during the course of employment and to enforce contractual obligations regarding wages and other working conditions between certain temporary, alien agricultural workers (H-2A) and their employers, to require the reporting of information about work performed by special agricultural workers employed in seasonal agricultural services and the enforcement of provisions concerning terms of employment of replenishment of agricultural workers, to enforce the employment conditions attested to by employers of H-1A temporary alien nonimmigrant registered nurses, to enforce worker protection provisions applicable to foreign students, nonimmigrant workers in "specialty occupations" and foreign crew members performing longshore work, and to require private employers with 50 or more employees and all public employers to provide eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave, job restoration, and continued health insurance due to personal illness, the birth or adoption of a child or for the care of a child, spouse or parent with a serious health condition. Click here for more information

17.309 Labor Organization Reports (Landrum-Griffin Act) - Objective: To provide for the reporting and disclosure of, financial transactions and administrative practices of labor organizations, employers, labor consultants and others required to report under the Landrum-Griffin Act; to provide standards for the election of union officers, trusteeships, fiduciary responsibilities of union officers, and rights of union members. Click here for more information

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	27.011 Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) Mobility Program - Objective: To facilitate Federal-State-local cooperation and to aid in solving problems and delivering improved services at all government levels through the sharing of professional, administrative, and technical expertise. Click here for more information

96.007 Social Security_Research and Demonstration - Objective: (1) To conduct social, economic, and demographic research on topics important to the Social Security Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs and the current and future well-being of their beneficiaries; (2) to develop and carry out experiments and research demonstration projects to determine the efficacy of: (a) alternative ways of rehabilitating beneficiaries and encouraging their return to work; and (b) modifying conditions applicable to such beneficiaries including: (i) early referral for rehabilitation services; and (ii) greater use of employers and others in the rehabilitation and placement process. Click here for more information

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