119-hr3029

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3029 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 3029

To amend the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act 
 to support nucleic acid screening, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 April 28, 2025

 Ms. Salinas (for herself and Mr. McCormick) introduced the following 
 bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and 
 Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

To amend the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act 
 to support nucleic acid screening, and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited ``Nucleic Acid Standards for Biosecurity 
Act''.

SEC. 2. SUPPORTING NUCLEIC ACID SCREENING.

 

Section 10221 of the Research and Development, Competition, and 
Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 18931; enacted as part of title II of 
division B of Public Law 117-167) is amended--

    (1) in subsection

    (a)

    (1) --
        (A) in subparagraph
            (C) , by striking ``and'' after 
 the semicolon;
        (B) by redesignating subparagraph
            (D) as 
 subparagraph
        (E) ; and
            (C) by inserting after subparagraph
            (C) the 
 following new subparagraph:
 ``
            (D) best practices, guidelines, and technical 
 standards for risk management associated with 
 engineering biology and biomanufacturing, including 
 risks associated with the use of artificial 
 intelligence; and'';

    (2) by redesignating subsections

    (b) and
            (c) as subsections
            (c) and
            (d) , respectively; and

    (3) by inserting after subsection

    (a) the following new 
 subsection:
 ``

    (b) Nucleic Acid Synthesis Screening Tools and Standards.--
 ``

    (1) In general.--The Director, in consultation with heads 
 of Federal agencies the Director considers appropriate, shall 
 carry out measurement research to support the development and 
 improvement of best practices and technical standards for 
 biosecurity measures related to nucleic acid synthesis, 
 including the following:
 ``
        (A) Testing to improve the accuracy, efficacy, 
 and reliability of screening for nucleic acid 
 synthesis.
 ``
        (B) Best practices, including security and access 
 controls, for operational security and managing 
 sequence-of-concern databases to support such 
 screening.
 ``
            (C) Technical implementation guidance to ensure 
 such screening is effective and secure.
 ``
            (D) Conformity-assessment best practices and 
 technical standards.
 ``
        (E) Methods to evaluate the impact and 
 effectiveness of the implementation of subparagraphs
        (A) through
            (D) .
 ``

    (2) Consortium.--In carrying out this subsection, the 
 Director shall convene a consortium of stakeholders, including 
 industry, institutions of higher education, nonprofit 
 organizations, and customers to carry out the following:
 ``
        (A) Develop and periodically update consensus 
 priorities and best practices, as appropriate, for 
 synthetic nucleic acid procurement screening 
 mechanisms.
 ``
        (B) Develop roadmaps to inform the activities 
 carried out under paragraph

    (1) .
 ``

    (3) Report.--Not later than 18 months after the first 
 meeting of the consortium under paragraph

    (2) , the Director 
 shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
 Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, 
 Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives a report 
 summarizing the findings of the consortium.
 ``

    (4) Authorization of appropriations.--Of the funds 
 authorized to be appropriated for the National Institute of 
 Standards and Technology pursuant to this section for 
 scientific and technical research and services laboratory 
 activities, there is authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000 
 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030 to carry out this 
 subsection.''.
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