NSCEB Monthly Newsletter – July 2026

NSCEB Monthly Newsletter

July 2026

Across the Hill, bipartisan, bicameral momentum for action to secure American biotechnology is accelerating. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees both included multiple biotech provisions in their respective versions of the FY27 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and a bipartisan group of Members introduced the Web of Biological Data Act in both chambers. See below for details on both. 

New NSCEB analysis showing how the Chinese government is actively leveraging our biotech playbook further underscores the importance and urgency of the U.S. government continuing to take these critical actions. 

Outside of Washington, momentum also continues with the #BiotechAcrossAmerica Roadshow planning exciting new stops in July!  

-Caitlin   

 

ICYMI: How the Chinese Government is Leveraging the NSCEB’s Playbook for Biotech Leadership

New analysis from the NSCEB shows how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is advancing its own biotechnology sector using strategies outlined in the NSCEB’s April 2025 Action Plan for U.S. biotechnology. This underscores the urgency for U.S. policymakers to act quickly to strengthen our own biotech sector. While biotech champions in Congress have made important legislative progress over the last year, China is actively running the NSCEB’s playbook, outpacing the U.S. to secure global biotechnology leadership. 

The CCP is taking action across five key domains of biotechnology prioritization, all of which were included in the NSCEB’s April 2025 action plan: National Strategy, Regulations, Infrastructure, Investment, and Data.   

Read the analysis here. 

 

NSCEB by the Numbers

As of June 1, 2026:  

• 36 NSCEB recommendations have seen bipartisan legislative action in either the House or the Senate. 
• 29 standalone bipartisan bills with NSCEB recommendations have been introduced in either the House or Senate. 
• 26 provisions that reflect NSCEB recommendations, either in full or in part, have been signed into law. 
• 9 NSCEB recommendations included in White House executive actions. 
• 22 states visited on the Biotech Across America Roadshow. 
• 400+ organizations have participated in Roadshow events. 

 

REMINDER! The Biotech Across America District Spotlight Series 

From now through the end of August, the Commission invites you to host gatherings as part of the Biotech Across America District Spotlight with stakeholders in your area to discuss your region’s successes, challenges, and how federal policy might better support the ecosystem’s future growth. Commission staff will work with you to design the event, including content and communications support. If you are interested in organizing or participating in an event in your area, please email: ideas@biotech.senate.gov.  

 

Legislative News

This month, biotech champions on the Hill introduced two new bipartisan bills and included multiple key provisions in FY27 House appropriations bills and the FY27 National Defense Authorization Act passed by both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.  

Web of Biological Data Act of 2026 (H.R.9307/S.4770) —Introduced on June 11 in both the House and Senate, this bill would establish the Web of Biological Data (WOBD), a single point of entry for researchers to access high-quality biological data, especially those managed or funded by the federal government. This would allow U.S researchers to spend less time curating biological data and more time testing hypotheses, training models, designing novel biological functions, and ultimately ensuring America outcompetes strategic competitors such as China. 

House Sponsors: Rep. Matt Van Epps (R-TN-07), Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA-04) 

Senate Sponsors: Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) 

Learn more here. 

   

FY27 House Appropriations Biotech Provisions (Full Committee Markup)   

The House Appropriations Committee is continuing its FY27 appropriations process. Each bill includes two parts, bill text and report language. Bill text moves on to the House floor, while report language is given the weight of law once the bill passes out of committee. 

You can see all FY27 appropriations provisions that reflect NSCEB recommendations here. 

This month, the committee marked up several appropriations bills. Key biotech provisions in report language include:  

• The Financial Services General Government report recognizes the importance of centralized interagency coordination on biotechnology, as well as directs OMB to report on crosscut budget amounts of federal biotechnology spending and regulatory overlap, gaps, and ambiguities related to biotechnology product regulation. 

• The Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies report includes key provisions such as encouraging NIH to assess the feasibility of using publicly available research tools, such as a platform, to link federated, AI-ready biomedical datasets and AI foundation models trained on such data. 

• The Defense report includes Congressional budget adds for key biotechnology programs, and applauds DOW for pursuing six Critical Technology Areas, one of which is biomanufacturing. 

FY27 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Biotech Provisions (Full Committee Markup) 

This month, both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees marked up their versions of the NDAA. Full lists of biotech provisions in each bill are available here and here. The House and Senate are each expected to take up the bill in their respective chambers this month. Key provisions include: 

• Prize Competitions to Support the Research and Development of Biotechnology for the Department of Defense: Requires the Secretary of Defense to carry out a program to award prizes to support research, development, and commercialization of biotechnology capabilities. 

• Inclusion of Biotechnology in Uses of the Industrial Base Fund: Includes biotechnology and biomanufacturing as an eligible use of authority of the Industrial Base Fund.   

• Comptroller General Review of Military Specifications related to biotechnology: Directs the Comptroller General to conduct a comprehensive assessment of military product specifications (MIL-SPECs) to determine whether they disadvantage biotechnology-derived products and biomaterials.  

• Ensuring Commercialization for Shelf-Stable Blood Prototype: Directs the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering to provide a briefing on the status of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) shelf-stable blood program. 

 

Monthly Legislative Spotlight

Each month we’ll highlight a different piece of legislation reflecting key NSCEB recommendations. We encourage you to continue using your voice to advocate for these key policy ideas.  

 

America’s Living Library Act of 2026 (H.R.7832/S.4023)

Summary:  The America’s Living Library Act of 2026 (H.R.7832/S.4023) would direct the Secretary of Interior to begin, within 180 days, the first phase of a project to collect, catalog, and sequence genomic information of animals, plants, fungi, and microbes on U.S. public lands.  

Background: The United States must treat biological data as a strategic national resource. While America has one of the most extensive and varied public lands systems in the world, the United States has failed to leverage its own wealth of biological data. Harnessing the biological data from across the country could provide important, cascading scientific insights, including to ensure that future AI models have the appropriate training data needed to unlock breakthrough discoveries in medicine, agriculture, and industrial production. 

Legislative Details: 

House Sponsors: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA-17), Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK-5), Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA-4), Rep. Chrissy Houlahan [D-PA-6], Rep. Donald Davis [D-NC-1], Rep. Robert Aderholt [R-AL-4], Rep. Eugene Vindman [D-VA-7] 

Senate Sponsors: Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Sen. Susan Collins [R-ME], Sen. Ben Ray Luján [D-NM], Sen. Ron Wyden [D-OR] 

Endorsements:  

• American Alliance for Biomanufacturing (AAB),  
• American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) 
• American Society for Microbiology (ASM) 
• American Society of Naturalists 
• Applied Research Institute (ARI)   
• Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) 
• California Institute for Biodiversity  
• ConservAmerica 
• Elanco 
• Eli Lilly   
• Ginkgo Bioworks 
• Google 
• Helminthological Society of Washington  
• Inari 
• Indiana Life Sciences Association  
• Indiana University 
• Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF)   
• Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA)  
• New England Biolabs 
• PacBio 
• QIAGEN  
• SCSP Action Program 
• seqWell 
• TaKaRa  
• The Paleontological Society  
• Twist Bioscience 
• Veil Genomics 

Learn more about the bill here. 

 

Biotech Across America Roadshow

Recent Roadshow Stops 

San Diego, California – June 23 – June 24 

In San Diego, NSCEB Executive Director Caitlin Frazer spoke on a panel at the BIO International Convention and visited the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Association to explore how advanced technologies from biobanking and genomic sequencing to artificial intelligence and machine learning are driving real-world results at the convergence of AIxBio. Learn more here.  

 

NSCEB in the News

LinkedIn by Commissioner Alexander Titus | “The future won’t belong to the countries that discover biology. It will belong to the countries that build with it.” 

A significant number of biotechnology provisions are moving through Congress as a part of the FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act. Passing this legislation would help to codify strategic biotechnology policy and secure America’s biotech future. 

 

Bloomberg | Pentagon Urged to Mass-Produce Synthetic Blood for War Injuries 

Congress and the Pentagon are investing in the emerging biotechnology field as a critical driver of national security. The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology has called on the US government to spend at least $15 billion over the next five years to unlock private capital and investment in the sector to blunt China’s rapid surge in the field. 

 

Scientific American | The lab never sleeps. Can the science keep up? 

Robots and AI are running experiments around the clock, from battery chemistry to cancer therapies. But can they be trusted to get it right? … The commission’s recommendations are moving through Congress in pieces, with some already reflected in legislation and others still awaiting hearings or committee action.  

 

WaPo | Newsletter | AI & Tech brief: China’s biotech dominance 

U.S. drug companies are accelerating licensing deals with Chinese pharmaceutical companies to take advantage of China’s clinical trials system. The Trump administration is eyeing the trend warily…In a release on Tuesday, Sens. Todd Young (R-Indiana) and Alex Padilla (D-California) announced new legislation, the Web of Biological Data Act, to create a secure, national biological dataset primed for AI researchers. 

 

Politico, Politico Pulse | Biosecure Blacklist  

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who chairs the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, applauded the decision to identify biotech companies with Chinese military ties. “We must also reinforce the American biotech ecosystem, including through investing in alternatives to Chinese biotech companies of concern, so that our industry is built on a foundation of trusted suppliers and service providers,” he said in a statement. 

 

Lawfare |  The Next Semiconductor 

Biomanufacturing data is a critical strategic asset, and the U.S. is failing to use it.  China is well positioned to aggregate and exploit this data due to the state-directed coordination of its manufacturing sector. China has made biotechnology a strategic initiative for the past 20 years, and U.S. companies are heavily dependent on Chinese manufacturers.  

 

Reuters |  China closing in but US still leads in biotech innovation, survey finds 

The ​poll, conducted by Cure Innovation Index, found that China is seen as the clear leader in ‌two out of six sectors: clinical development and supply chain.  

 

July Look Ahead

• July 21-22: Critical Minerals & Rare Earth Elements, Reston, VA 
• July 23: Decoding Bio AIxBIO Summit, New York, NY  
• July 23-24: Colorado Roadshow, Denver and Boulder, CO 
• July 30-31: Ohio Roadshow, Ohio 

 

About NSCEB: The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology is a time-limited, high-impact legislative branch advisory entity whose purpose is to advance and secure biotechnology, biomanufacturing, and associated technologies for U.S. national security and to prepare the United States for the bioindustrial revolution. The Commission published a comprehensive report in April 2025, including recommendations for action by Congress and the federal government. The bipartisan Commission is composed of Congressionally-appointed Commissioners with members from both the Senate and the House of Representatives as well as experts from industry, academia, and government. For more information about the Commission and to view the report, visit: biotech.senate.gov.

Contacts:

NSCEB: press@biotech.senate.gov