I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION 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
APRIL28, 2025
Ms. S
ALINAS(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 Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited ‘‘Nucleic Acid Standards for 4
Biosecurity Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. SUPPORTING NUCLEIC ACID SCREENING. 6
Section 10221 of the Research and Development, 7
Competition, and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 18931; en-8
acted as part of title II of division B of Public Law 117– 9
167) is amended— 10
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•HR 3029 IH
(1) in subsection (a)(1)— 1
(A) in subparagraph (C), by striking 2
‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; 3
(B) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as 4
subparagraph (E); and 5
(C) by inserting after subparagraph (C) 6
the following new subparagraph: 7
‘‘(D) best practices, guidelines, and tech-8
nical standards for risk management associated 9
with engineering biology and biomanufacturing, 10
including risks associated with the use of artifi-11
cial intelligence; and’’; 12
(2) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as 13
subsections (c) and (d), respectively; and 14
(3) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol-15
lowing new subsection: 16
‘‘(b) N
UCLEICACIDSYNTHESISSCREENINGTOOLS 17
ANDSTANDARDS.— 18
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Director, in consulta-19
tion with heads of Federal agencies the Director 20
considers appropriate, shall carry out measurement 21
research to support the development and improve-22
ment of best practices and technical standards for 23
biosecurity measures related to nucleic acid syn-24
thesis, including the following: 25
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‘‘(A) Testing to improve the accuracy, effi-1
cacy, and reliability of screening for nucleic acid 2
synthesis. 3
‘‘(B) Best practices, including security and 4
access controls, for operational security and 5
managing sequence-of-concern databases to 6
support such screening. 7
‘‘(C) Technical implementation guidance to 8
ensure such screening is effective and secure. 9
‘‘(D) Conformity-assessment best practices 10
and technical standards. 11
‘‘(E) Methods to evaluate the impact and 12
effectiveness of the implementation of subpara-13
graphs (A) through (D). 14
‘‘(2) C
ONSORTIUM.—In carrying out this sub-15
section, the Director shall convene a consortium of 16
stakeholders, including industry, institutions of high-17
er education, nonprofit organizations, and customers 18
to carry out the following: 19
‘‘(A) Develop and periodically update con-20
sensus priorities and best practices, as appro-21
priate, for synthetic nucleic acid procurement 22
screening mechanisms. 23
‘‘(B) Develop roadmaps to inform the ac-24
tivities carried out under paragraph (1). 25
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‘‘(3) REPORT.—Not later than 18 months after 1
the first meeting of the consortium under paragraph 2
(2), the Director shall submit to the Committee on 3
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Sen-4
ate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Tech-5
nology of the House of Representatives a report 6
summarizing the findings of the consortium. 7
‘‘(4) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .—Of 8
the funds authorized to be appropriated for the Na-9
tional Institute of Standards and Technology pursu-10
ant to this section for scientific and technical re-11
search and services laboratory activities, there is au-12
thorized to be appropriated $5,000,000 for each of 13
fiscal years 2026 through 2030 to carry out this 14
subsection.’’. 15
Æ
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