(a) The Secretary may authorize the establishment at any Department medical center of a nonprofit">nonprofit corporation to provide a flexible funding mechanism for the conduct of approved research and education at the medical center. Except as otherwise required in this subchapter or under regulations prescribed by the Secretary, any such corporation, and its directors and employees, shall be required to comply only with those Federal laws, regulations, and executive orders and directives which apply generally to private nonprofit">nonprofit corporations. Such a corporation may be established to facilitate either research or education or both research and education.

(b) If by the end of the four-year period beginning on the date of the establishment of a corporation under this subchapter the corporation is not recognized as an entity the income of which is exempt from taxation under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, the Secretary shall dissolve the corporation.