National Biotechnology Initiative Act of 2025
Sponsored By: Representative Bice
Introduced
Summary
Creates a White House-led National Biotechnology Initiative to coordinate federal R&D, regulatory pathways, data infrastructure, biosafety, and workforce efforts across agencies. It sets up an Office, an Interagency Committee, and a public website to centralize biotech activities and speed commercialization while addressing national security and data standards.
Show full summary
- Researchers and industry: Establishes a National Biotechnology Coordination Office and an interagency committee to align funding priorities, create a national network of testbeds, and publish clear regulatory pathways and a single digital portal for multi-agency reviews. This aims to ease commercialization and reduce regulatory overlap.
- Workforce and education: Requires coordinated workforce planning, fellowships, curriculum development, reskilling, and federal training to grow domestic biotech talent and prepare federal, academic, and industrial workers for biomanufacturing and computational biology jobs.
- Public safety and policy: Directs agencies to strengthen biosafety, biosecurity, and biological data standards, assess foreign investment risks, and produce a national biotechnology strategy with GAO reviews starting within 3 years and repeating every 5 years through year 20.
*Authorizes about $132.0 million to the National Science Foundation for administrative support over FY2026–2030 and creates coordinated agency duties that may lead to additional federal costs.*
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
7 provisions identified: 6 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
Biotech training and fellowships for workers
Agencies would fund biotech education, training, and entrepreneurship programs. Competitive grants would support graduate students and postdocs who do some biotech research in an industry setting. Veterans and industry workers would be able to get re-skilling and upskilling.
More help for biotech startups
Agencies would give industry, colleges, and nonprofits access to advanced federal labs, equipment, materials, and secure high-performance computing, as appropriate. Agencies would also use SBIR and STTR programs to back biotech proof-of-concept work and new startup formation. This could lower lab and computing costs and expand early grant options for small biotech firms.
Biotech national plan and audits
The Director and an interagency group would send Congress an annual report starting within 1 year and every year after. They would publish a national biotechnology strategy within 2 years and update it at least every 5 years, including a 5-year budget estimate for urgent actions. The Government Accountability Office would start a review within 3 years, brief Congress at 3.5 years, report at 4 years, and repeat every 5 years until 20 years after enactment.
White House biotech office and portal
Within 180 days, the President would set up a National Biotechnology Coordination Office in the White House and name a Director. Within 540 days, the office would publish one public biotech website with a dashboard, funding notices, plain-language guides, a Q&A, and past regulatory decisions. It would also build a single-application portal to share information across agencies. If agencies cannot agree on a clear approval path for a product, the Office of Management and Budget would step in to set a path and oversee needed rule or guidance changes.
Five-year funding to run initiative
The bill would authorize NSF to support the initiative’s staff and operations. It would authorize $22 million for FY2026, $35 million for FY2027, and $25 million each year for FY2028 through FY2030. Funds would cover employees, details, space, and overhead for the White House biotech office. Congress would still need to appropriate these amounts before they are spent.
Incentives to retool factories for biotech
Agencies would offer incentives to owners of industrial sites to convert facilities for biotech manufacturing. This would help cover some costs to pivot existing plants to make biotech products and scale up production.
Office winds down in 20 years
Twenty years after enactment, the White House biotech office would transfer most authorities, staff, and resources to other agencies. It would keep enough staff to serve as the executive secretariat and maintain the initiative website. Requirements and powers would carry over to the receiving agencies.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Bice
OK • R
Cosponsors
Khanna
CA • D
Sponsored 4/9/2025
Houlahan
PA • D
Sponsored 4/29/2025
Morelle
NY • D
Sponsored 6/3/2025
Auchincloss
MA • D
Sponsored 6/25/2025
Sessions
TX • R
Sponsored 6/26/2025
Bilirakis
FL • R
Sponsored 7/22/2025
Vindman
VA • D
Sponsored 9/3/2025
Flood
NE • R
Sponsored 9/30/2025
Landsman
OH • D
Sponsored 9/30/2025
Miller (OH)
OH • R
Sponsored 10/3/2025
Baird
IN • R
Sponsored 10/31/2025
Neguse
CO • D
Sponsored 11/19/2025
McClain Delaney
MD • D
Sponsored 11/25/2025
Del. Moylan, James C. [R-GU-At Large]
GU • R
Sponsored 1/13/2026
Davis (NC)
NC • D
Sponsored 2/9/2026
Riley (NY)
NY • D
Sponsored 2/9/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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