S854-119

What This Bill Does

The reported Risky Research Review Act would establish a nine-member Life Sciences Research Security Board as an independent executive-branch agency. It would decide whether agencies may fund covered high-risk life sciences research and set required safety, security and personnel controls. Its jurisdiction concerns federal awards, including grants, contracts, cooperative agreements and intramural funding; it is not a blanket ban on all privately financed research. All applicants for federal life-sciences funding must attest under penalty of perjury whether their proposed work is high-risk and whether they are conducting active research with select agents or toxins. A positive attestation requires disclosure of funding sources for all active research. Agencies must certify attestations, refer high-risk proposals and give the Board notice at least 30 days before proposed life-sciences awards. The bill authorizes $30 million annually for the Board for fiscal years 2026-2035, totaling $300 million, but does not appropriate that money. It was reported without amendment and is not enacted.

Who Benefits and How

Communities, laboratory workers and the public may benefit if independent review reduces risks from federally supported research. These are intended, not guaranteed, safety benefits. The Board gains binding funding-review and classification authority, including access to classified work and records. Congress gains regular briefings, access to Board records and enforcement reports; GAO must periodically audit the Board. Emergency research addressing a public-health emergency or specific national-security concern can receive expedited review, and an agency may temporarily fund it if the Board has not notified the agency of a determination within 15 days of the expedited request. This exception can help urgent research proceed, but it is not final approval or the ordinary rule for other proposals.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Research universities, biomedical research companies, federal laboratories and award recipients face new attestations, disclosures, funding delays and possible denial or suspension. If changed circumstances may turn previously attested non-high-risk work into high-risk work, recipients must pause it within 24 hours and notify the agency within five days; the agency determines whether work can resume or must go to the Board. High-risk recipients must disclose proposed subawards and subcontracts continuously and obtain agency consent before awarding them. Knowing false attestations or notification failures trigger suspension/debarment referrals, not automatic debarment. Agency employees who knowingly violate certification duties face inspector-general referral, disciplinary action and permanent revocation of applicable security clearances. Agencies must supply records, certify proposals, designate support representatives and report violations. Board members face conflict-of-interest reviews, financial-disclosure requirements and security-clearance restrictions; the Office of Government Ethics has oversight duties. Federal taxpayers would bear Board costs if Congress later appropriates the authorized amounts. Safety controls may also delay beneficial research, an implementation tradeoff rather than a quantified outcome.

Key Provisions

• Creates a nine-member Board with a Senate-confirmed executive director, five nongovernmental life-sciences scientists, two national-security experts and a biosafety expert; limits service to two four-year terms and allows up to 25 additional personnel.
• Requires sworn applicant attestations, agency certification and at least 30-day advance notice of proposed life-sciences funding; gives the Board final authority in covered classification disputes with agencies or entities.
• Requires ordinary high-risk funding decisions within 120 days and permits review and temporary suspension of qualifying ongoing pre-enactment awards; no single risk-benefit factor, including a foreign research location, determines the outcome.
• Provides an expedited emergency process with temporary agency funding allowed after 15 days without a notified determination, rather than an across-the-board foreign research ban or automatic approval at the ordinary deadline.
• Requires a 24-hour research pause and five-day agency notice for potentially high-risk changes, advance agency consent for high-risk subawards, and enforcement referrals for knowing violations.
• Establishes a funding prohibition at day 180 but makes the Board-review section effective at day 270, creating an apparent 90-day implementation gap that the text does not expressly bridge.
• Requires quarterly congressional briefings, 30-day responses to congressional information requests and periodic GAO audits; annual determination reports begin 360 days after establishment of an optional scientific panel, not automatically 360 days after enactment.
• Authorizes $30 million annually for 2026-2035 and adds Board members to federal financial-disclosure filing requirements without itself appropriating the money.