{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://valadao.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3372", "Valadao, Costa, Kiley Reintroduce Bill to Address Gaps in Federal Law that Allowed Reedley Lab Incident to Occur", "2025-12-04", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "CA", "David G. Valadao", "V000129", "valadao.house.gov", "valadao", "https://valadao.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, Congressman David Valadao (CA-22) joined Congressmen Jim Costa (CA-21) and Kevin Kiley (CA-03) to reintroduce the Preventing Illegal Laboratories and Protecting Public Health Act of 2025. This bipartisan bill would help address gaps in federal law that regulate highly infectious agents and high-containment biomedical laboratories to protect Americans from public health and national security threats.\n\nEarlier this year, Congressmen Valadao and Costa also reintroduced the Safety Training for Officers on Public (STOP) Health Threats Act\u2014another bipartisan effort that takes critical steps to help prevent public health threats like the Reedley Lab incident.\n\n\u201cThe Reedley Lab incident was a dangerous national security failure, and it\u2019s critical we put safeguards in place to ensure it never happens again,\u201d said Congressman Valadao. \u201cThis bipartisan bill closes the federal loopholes that allowed a facility like Reedley to operate under the radar and strengthens oversight so bad actors can\u2019t exploit gaps in the future. I\u2019m proud to partner with Congressman Costa to reintroduce this commonsense legislation and improve coordination at the local, state, and federal levels.\u201d\n\n\u201cSince we first uncovered the illegal lab in Reedley, I\u2019ve continued working with local, state, and federal leaders to push for stronger safeguards at the federal level to ensure public safety,\u201d said Congressman Costa. \u201cThat\u2019s why I first introduced this bill last year, and why I\u2019m reintroducing it today with bipartisan support \u2014 to close gaps in the regulation of labs and prevent bad actors from exploiting our public health system. The legislation strengthens tracking, improves oversight of anyone working with infectious diseases, and ensures deeper cooperation between local, state, and federal agencies.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe situation in Reedley made clear that the federal government must do more to prevent illegal labs from operating in our neighborhoods,\u201d said Congressman Kiley. \u201cThis legislation creates the accountability and oversight needed to close dangerous gaps and protect the public. I\u2019m grateful for the partnership on this issue and committed to ensuring our communities never face a threat like this again.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Reedley incident highlighted a gap in the nation\u2019s bio security. Any city around this country could have dozens of deadly pathogens stored next to sensitive locations and be completely unaware of it. Congressman Costa took this issue seriously from the very beginning and understood the national implications. His proposed legislation puts us on a path to closing that critical gap that will help keep every American safe from the hazards like those like those discovered in the Reedley lab,\u201d said Nicole Zieba, City Manager of Reedley.\n\n\u201cThe County of Fresno appreciates Congressman Costa for taking proactive steps by introducing legislation that will address issues experienced during the response to the unlicensed laboratory in Reedley. The proposed legislation will fill gaps in our national biosecurity surveillance while establishing a standardized framework for tracking the movement of highly infectious materials. These measures will enable authorities to identify and mitigate potential risks more effectively,\u201d said Joe Prado, Director of Public Health, Fresno County Department of Public Health.\n\nThe Preventing Illegal Laboratories and Protecting Public Health Act would:\n\nRequire distributors of highly pathogenic agents to maintain federally reviewable logbooks of all transfers, including purchaser identity and intended use, for at least three years.\n\nStrengthen oversight by mandating federal review of the number, location, and risks of high-containment labs, with updated national standards for design, construction, and operation.\n\nProtect against foreign threats by ensuring adversaries cannot exploit weak U.S. oversight to establish secret labs.\n\nCreate a Public Health Biosafety and Biosecurity Team as a single point of contact for state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments when suspicious labs are identified.\n\nRequire a feasibility study on creating a centralized national database of high-containment labs, accessible to state and local officials for biosecurity purposes.\n\nBackground:\n\nIn 2023, local code enforcement discovered an unlicensed laboratory operating in Reedley, California. This lab contained hazardous pathogens, including samples of COVID-19, and unsafe storage of infectious materials. Investigations revealed the operation had ties to Chinese ownership and funding, raising alarms about foreign adversaries exploiting weaknesses in U.S. biosafety oversight.\n\nCurrent federal law regulates only a limited list of \u201cselect agents\u201d which leaves many dangerous pathogens outside of federal tracking requirements. The Preventing Illegal Laboratories and Protecting Public Health Act closes these gaps by requiring distributors to maintain federally reviewable records of all transfers, creating a federal framework to evaluate high-containment labs nationwide, and strengthening coordination between federal, state, and local governments to protect public health and national security.\n\nRead the full bill here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://valadao.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3372"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9505120106041431, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}