What a yes vote endorsed
To Amend the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act to Support Nucleic Acid Screening, and for Other Purposes.
What this does
This bill directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to carry out measurement research supporting best practices and technical standards for biosecurity measures tied to nucleic acid synthesis, including testing to improve the accuracy and reliability of screening and methods for managing sequence-of-concern databases. It requires the Director to convene a consortium of industry, universities, nonprofits, and customers to set consensus priorities and best practices for synthetic nucleic acid procurement screening. The Director must report the consortium's findings to the Senate Commerce and House Science committees within 18 months of the consortium's first meeting. It also authorizes $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2031 to carry out this work, and adds risk management for engineering biology and biomanufacturing, including artificial intelligence risks, to an existing NIST standards list.
Passed the House by voice vote
How we know · 6 sourced claims
- The bill directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to carry out measurement research supporting best practices and technical standards for biosecurity measures related to nucleic acid synthesis.Source: Sec. 2, new subsection (b)(1)
- The research includes testing to improve the accuracy and reliability of screening and best practices for managing sequence-of-concern databases.Source: Sec. 2, new subsection (b)(1)(A) and (B)
- It requires the Director to convene a consortium of industry, universities, nonprofits, and customers to set consensus priorities and best practices for synthetic nucleic acid procurement screening.Source: Sec. 2, new subsection (b)(2)
- The Director must report the consortium's findings to the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee and the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee within 18 months of the consortium's first meeting.Source: Sec. 2, new subsection (b)(3)
- It authorizes $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2031 to carry out this work.Source: Sec. 2, new subsection (b)(4)
- It adds risk management for engineering biology and biomanufacturing, including artificial intelligence risks, to an existing NIST standards list.Source: Sec. 2, amendment adding subparagraph (a)(1)(D)