The bill
Risky Research Review Act
S. 854, 119th Congress — read as touching Biotech & Research.
Sponsored by
Sen. Paul, Rand [R-KY]
ID: P000603
Follow the money
The bill
S. 854, 119th Congress — read as touching Biotech & Research.
The sponsor
Every bill has someone who introduced it. That name is where the paper trail starts.
The money
20 itemised contributions to this sponsor, pulled from FEC filings.
The alignment
This bill's text tracks the "Environmental Protection Agency" section, p. 470-472 of the Mandate for Leadership.
Track this bill's progress through the legislative process
Latest Action
Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 164.
September 16, 2025
📍 Current Status
Next: The bill will be reviewed by relevant committees who will debate, amend, and vote on it.
1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.
2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.
3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.
4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.
5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.
6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.
7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!
Another masterpiece of legislative theater, courtesy of the esteemed members of Congress. The Risky Research Review Act (S 854) - a bill that promises to protect us from the dangers of dual-use research while actually serving as a Trojan horse for bureaucratic expansion and special interest pandering.
**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The bill's stated purpose is to establish the Life Sciences Research Security Board, which will supposedly review and regulate "dual use research of concern" - research that could potentially be used for nefarious purposes. But let's not be naive; this board will likely become a rubber stamp for the interests of powerful lobbies and government agencies.
**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** The bill creates a new chapter in Title 31, United States Code, establishing the Life Sciences Research Security Board. The board will have sweeping powers to review research proposals, impose regulations, and even conduct audits. But don't worry, it's all for our safety - or so they claim.
**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:** The usual suspects will benefit from this bill: government agencies seeking more power, researchers looking for funding and prestige, and lobbyists representing the interests of pharmaceutical companies and biotech firms. Meanwhile, taxpayers will foot the bill for this bureaucratic expansion, and actual research may be stifled by the added regulatory burden.
**Potential Impact & Implications:** This bill is a classic case of "mission creep." It starts with a seemingly noble goal - protecting us from dual-use research - but ultimately becomes a vehicle for government overreach and special interest influence. The board will likely become a tool for suppressing research that challenges the status quo or threatens powerful interests.
In medical terms, this bill is akin to a patient presenting with symptoms of bureaucratic bloat and regulatory fever. The diagnosis? A bad case of "Legislative-itis" - a disease characterized by an excessive growth of government agencies, fueled by special interest money and a disregard for individual liberties.
Treatment? A healthy dose of skepticism, followed by a strong prescription of transparency and accountability. But don't hold your breath; this patient is likely to remain in a state of chronic bureaucratic illness, with the Risky Research Review Act serving as just another symptom of a deeper disease - the corruption and cowardice that plagues our legislative system.
Sen. Paul, Rand [R-KY]
Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle
No PAC contributions found
No organization contributions found
No committee contributions found
This bill has 1 cosponsors. Below are their top campaign contributors.
ID: P000595
Top Contributors
10
Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.
Showing 51 nodes and 23 connections (47 secondary connections hidden)
Total contributions: $97,400
Showing top 19 donors by contribution amount
Which industries are materially affected by specific provisions in this bill. 5 harmed.
The bill establishes a Life Sciences Research Security Board that reviews and can block Federal funding for high-risk life sciences research, including gain of function research and dual use research of concern involving high-consequence pathogens. This imposes regulatory oversight and potential delays or denials of funding for biotech firms engaged in such research, constituting a clear cost (new regulation, enforcement, market contraction). Sections 7904, 7905, and 7906 detail the Board's auth
The bill's review process applies to life sciences research, which includes pharmaceutical and biomedical research (as defined in section 7901(10)(B)). Pharmaceutical companies receiving Federal funding for research involving high-consequence pathogens or gain of function research would be subject to Board approval, potentially delaying or blocking awards. This constitutes a clear cost via new regulatory oversight and enforcement mechanisms under sections 7905 and 7906.
The bill creates a Life Sciences Research Security Board that reviews and can block Federal funding for high-risk life sciences research, which includes pharmaceutical and biomedical research. This could reduce funding for health insurance-related research (e.g., drug development, vaccine research) that insurers may rely on for coverage decisions, potentially harming the health insurance industry by limiting innovation in treatments they cover. Section 7906(a)(1)(B) gives the Board authority to
Hospitals and health systems that conduct life sciences research (e.g., clinical trials, biomedical studies) with Federal funding may be subject to the Board's review if their research involves high-risk life sciences as defined. This could delay or restrict funding for such research, imposing a cost via new regulatory requirements. Section 7901(10) includes biomedical research, and sections 7905-7906 apply to agencies awarding such funding, which includes NIH-funded hospital research.
Medical device companies engaged in life sciences research (e.g., biomaterials, implantable devices, diagnostics) that receive Federal funding for research involving high-consequence pathogens or gain of function research would fall under the Board's purview. This could impose delays or denials of funding, representing a clear cost via new regulatory oversight. Section 7901(10) includes biomedical research and techniques, which encompasses medical device R&D.
For each industry this bill affects, here's what the sponsor (Sen. Paul, Rand [R-KY])received from donors associated with that industry during the 2022–present cycles. Donations are not proof of intent — they are a record of who funds the people writing the law.
This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document.AI-enhanced analysis provides detailed alignment ratings.
AI Analysis:
"Both the bill and the Project 2025 EPA section emphasize strengthening oversight and accountability of scientific activities through independent review mechanisms and ensuring congressional authorization, though they apply to different domains (life sciences research vs. EPA science programs)."
— 437 — Environmental Protection Agency l Suspend and review the activities of EPA advisory bodies, many of which have not been authorized by Congress or lack independence, balance, and geographic and viewpoint diversity. l Retract delegations for key science and risk-assessment decisions from Assistant Administrators, regional offices, and career officials. l Eliminate the use of Title 42 hiring authority that allows ORD to spend millions in taxpayer dollars for salaries of certain employees above the civil service scale. l Announce plans to streamline and reform EPA’s poorly coordinated and managed laboratory structure. Budget: Back-to-Basics Rejection of Unauthorized or Expired Science Activities A top priority should be the immediate and consistent rejection of all EPA ORD and science activities that have not been authorized by Congress. In FY 2022, according to EPA’s opaque budgeting efforts, science and technology activ- ities totaled nearly $730 million. EPA’s FY 2023 budget request for the Office of Research and Development seeks funds for more than 1,850 employees—a dramatic increase for what is already the largest EPA office with well above 10 percent of the agency’s workforce.44 ORD conducts a wide-ranging series of science and peer review activities, some in support of regulatory programs established by our envi- ronmental laws, but often lacks authority for these specific endeavors. Several ORD offices and programs, many of which constitute unaccountable efforts to use scientific determinations to drive regulatory, enforcement, and legal decisions, should be eliminated. The Integrated Risk Information System, for example, was ostensibly designed by EPA to evaluate hazard and dose-response for certain chemicals. Despite operating since the 1980s, the program has never been authorized by Congress and often sets “safe levels” based on questionable science and below background levels, resulting in billions in economic costs. The program has been criticized by a wide variety of stakeholders: states; Congress; the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM); and the U.S. Govern- ment Accountability Office (GAO), among others. EPA has failed to implement meaningful reforms, and this unaccountable program threatens key regulatory processes as well as the integrity of Clean Air Act and TSCA implementation. Needed EPA Advisory Body Reforms EPA currently operates 21 federal advisory committees.45 These committees often play an outsized role in determining agency scientific and regulatory policy, — 438 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise and their membership has too often been handpicked to achieve certain politi- cal positions. In the Biden Administration, key EPA advisory committees were purged of balanced perspectives, geographic diversity, important regulatory and private-sector experience, and state, local, and tribal expertise. Contrary to con- gressional directives and recommendations from the GAO and intergovernmental associations, these moves eviscerated historic levels of participation on key com- mittees by state, local, and tribal members from 2017 to 2020. As a result, a variety of EPA regulations lack relevant scientific perspectives, increasing the risks of economic fallout and a failure of cooperative federalism. EPA also has repeatedly disregarded legal requirements regarding the role of these advisory committees and the scope of scientific advice on key regulations.46 Needed Science Policy Reforms Instead of allowing these efforts to be misused for scaremongering risk com- munications and enforcement activities, EPA should embrace so-called citizen science and deputize the public to subject the agency’s science to greater scrutiny, especially in areas of data analysis, identification of scientific flaws, and research misconduct. In addition, EPA should: l Shift responsibility for evaluating misconduct away from its Office of Scientific Integrity, which has been overseen by environmental activists, and toward an independent body. l Work (including with Congress) to provide incentives similar to those under the False Claims Act47 for the public to identify scientific flaws and research misconduct, thereby saving taxpayers from having to bear the costs involved in expending unnecessary resources. l Avoid proprietary, black box models for key regulations. Nearly all major EPA regulations are based on nontransparent models for which the public lacks access or for which significant costs prevent the public from understanding agency analysis. l Reject precautionary default models and uncertainty factors. In the face of uncertainty around associations between certain pollutants and health or welfare endpoints, EPA’s heavy reliance on default assumptions like its low-dose, linear non-threshold model bake orders of magnitude of risk into key regulatory inputs and drive flawed and opaque decisions. Given the disproportionate economic impacts of top-down solutions, EPA should implement an approach that defaults to less restrictive regulatory outcomes.
AI Analysis:
"The bill focuses on creating a board to oversee high-risk life sciences research for national security, while the Project 2025 EPA section concerns reforming EPA advisory bodies, hiring practices, lab structure, and rejecting unauthorized EPA science activities. Both share a theme of increased oversight of federal scientific endeavors, but their substantive domains and objectives differ significantly."
— 437 — Environmental Protection Agency l Suspend and review the activities of EPA advisory bodies, many of which have not been authorized by Congress or lack independence, balance, and geographic and viewpoint diversity. l Retract delegations for key science and risk-assessment decisions from Assistant Administrators, regional offices, and career officials. l Eliminate the use of Title 42 hiring authority that allows ORD to spend millions in taxpayer dollars for salaries of certain employees above the civil service scale. l Announce plans to streamline and reform EPA’s poorly coordinated and managed laboratory structure. Budget: Back-to-Basics Rejection of Unauthorized or Expired Science Activities A top priority should be the immediate and consistent rejection of all EPA ORD and science activities that have not been authorized by Congress. In FY 2022, according to EPA’s opaque budgeting efforts, science and technology activ- ities totaled nearly $730 million. EPA’s FY 2023 budget request for the Office of Research and Development seeks funds for more than 1,850 employees—a dramatic increase for what is already the largest EPA office with well above 10 percent of the agency’s workforce.44 ORD conducts a wide-ranging series of science and peer review activities, some in support of regulatory programs established by our envi- ronmental laws, but often lacks authority for these specific endeavors. Several ORD offices and programs, many of which constitute unaccountable efforts to use scientific determinations to drive regulatory, enforcement, and legal decisions, should be eliminated. The Integrated Risk Information System, for example, was ostensibly designed by EPA to evaluate hazard and dose-response for certain chemicals. Despite operating since the 1980s, the program has never been authorized by Congress and often sets “safe levels” based on questionable science and below background levels, resulting in billions in economic costs. The program has been criticized by a wide variety of stakeholders: states; Congress; the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM); and the U.S. Govern- ment Accountability Office (GAO), among others. EPA has failed to implement meaningful reforms, and this unaccountable program threatens key regulatory processes as well as the integrity of Clean Air Act and TSCA implementation. Needed EPA Advisory Body Reforms EPA currently operates 21 federal advisory committees.45 These committees often play an outsized role in determining agency scientific and regulatory policy,
AI Analysis:
"The bill focuses on biosecurity oversight of life sciences research, while the Project 2025 policy emphasizes U.S. scientific dominance, technology transfer, and national security in energy-related R&D (AI, cybersecurity, space, natural resources). There is minimal thematic overlap, as the bill does not address DOE, Office of Science, or technology commercialization priorities outlined in the policy."
— 393 — Department of Energy and Related Commissions l Ensure that R&D funds are used for projects that protect and advance that edge. l Ensure that successful advances, with a focus on new natural resource development technologies, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and space, are transferred swiftly to American interests in the private sector. New Policies l Focus on benefits to Americans. OTT’s operations should be based on the recognition that the new technologies generated by American taxpayers’ investment in DOE are a significant national security asset rather than some neutral scientific gift to humanity. l Increase oversight and coordination. OTT needs to be vigilant in overseeing and coordinating OTT offices associated with each National Lab. For security and economic espionage reasons, the work funded by the American people needs to be protected, and when commercialized, it needs to go to American businesses. OFFICE OF SCIENCE (SC) Mission/Overview The Office of Science (SC) supports and oversees research facilities and pro- grams that cover basic science through its application to the demonstration and deployment of energy technologies. SC oversees 10 of the 17 DOE National Labs and 28 major federal research user facilities. Its mission is to preserve U.S. leader- ship in science, fund and perform basic research, and provide the scientific facilities that the private sector is unable or unwilling to provide. New initiatives include quantum information sciences and artificial intelligence. SC is led by a Senate-con- firmed Director at the Assistant Secretary level and has eight program offices.82 Needed Reforms The next conservative President should commit the United States to scientific dominance to support national and economic security, especially in light of similar efforts by China. To aid in this effort, the Office of Science should: l Return to its primary mission: nonpartisan and basic science. SC’s mission should be international leadership in basic and early applied science and provision of world-leading facilities for this work. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act mark the major — 394 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise reorientation of DOE primarily from defense applications in the NNSA and basic and early applied science across SC and the applied offices to a massive federal research, development, demonstration, and commercialization body.83 Distraction from SC’s basic science mission should be prevented. l Increase the level of accountability. The National Laboratories need to be more directly accountable to the Secretary of Energy and Congress for their work and management. New Policies l Commit to U.S. science dominance. The United States is losing its dominance in scientific discoveries and technological development. China and other adversaries have been stealing American science and technology for years and are now on the verge of dominating science—a development that is fraught with negative strategic and economic implications for the United States. The next Administration must commit itself to ensuring that the U.S. continues to dominate scientific discovery and technological advancement. l Refocus on mission and eliminate duplication and waste. The Administration should work with Congress to rationalize the National Lab network to meet specific national objectives (such as the NNSA laboratories’ role in national defense) and conduct basic research that the private sector would not otherwise conduct. Activities that duplicate those of other government agencies or the private sector should be eliminated. l Properly manage the National Labs’ contributions to the private sector. SC should improve private-sector access to the National Labs, through programs like the GAIN voucher program and consistent with national security considerations, while ensuring that the economic benefits of taxpayer-funded technologies flow back to taxpayers through patent- review sharing or a revolving fund. Budget The Office of Science was appropriated slightly more than $7 billion in FY 2021, and DOE requested slightly less than $7.8 billion for FY 2023.84 OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT (EM) Mission/Overview The Office of Environmental Management’s mission is to “complete the safe cleanup of [the] environmental legacy resulting from decades of nuclear
Showing 3 of 5 policy matches
Policy matches are calculated using a hybrid approach: initial candidates are found using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text, then an AI model (Llama 3.1 70B) provides detailed alignment ratings and analysis. Ratings range from 1 (minimal alignment) to 5 (very strong alignment). This analysis does not imply direct causation or intent.