{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/heinrich-rounds-introduce-legislation-to-leverage-artificial-intelligence-for-pandemic-preparedness-and-response", "Heinrich, Rounds Introduce Legislation to Leverage Artificial Intelligence for Pandemic Preparedness and Response", "2024-09-26", "2024", "2024-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "NM", "Martin Heinrich", "H001046", "www.heinrich.senate.gov", "heinrich", "https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), co-chairs of the Senate Artificial Intelligence (AI) Caucus, today introduced legislation to leverage AI for national pandemic preparedness and response through a program called MedShield. The legislation would implement a recommendation of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.\n\nMedShield would be the United States\u2019 \u201cshield\u201d to proactively protect the nation against future pandemics and avoid the preparedness issues that plagued the nation at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. To that end, MedShield would foster collaboration between the public and private sectors as well as with global allies and partners. The program would leverage AI to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of U.S. pandemic prevention and response across five key areas:\n\n\u201cAI holds amazing potential to supercharge major scientific and medical advances \u2013 including our ability to anticipate and address the next public health crisis,\u201d said Heinrich, Founder and Co-Chair of the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus. \u201cBy leveraging AI, our Medshield Act gives us a significant advantage in preparing for the emergence of new biological threats to prevent the next pandemic.\u201d\n\n\u201cGiven millions of deaths and trillions of dollars in economic costs resulting from COVID-19, we need to make strategic investments in pandemic prevention and preparedness. I believe AI should play a key role in those efforts\u201d said Rounds. \u201cThe MedShield program would utilize AI to help the U.S. identify pathogens that pose pandemic threats and work quickly to develop necessary protections. I\u2019m pleased to be introducing this legislation with Senator Heinrich, my co-chair of the Senate AI Caucus, to leverage AI to save lives.\u201d\n\n\"I strongly support and applaud Senators Rounds\u2019 and Heinrich\u2019s leadership in introducing legislation to create the MedShield program. This critical program is a key recommendation from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, recognizing the transformative role AI can play in pandemic preparedness,\u201d said Ylli Bajraktari, the former Executive Director of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. \u201cThe COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for rapid innovation in detecting threats and accelerating vaccine and therapeutic development with AI. MedShield will bring together the power of AI and human ingenuity, significantly enhancing our ability to respond to future biological threats with speed and precision. This legislation is a crucial step toward creating an integrated AI-enabled system that will safeguard public health and our national security.\"\n\nThe legislation includes:\n\nThe text of the bill is here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:43:57Z"]], "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://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/heinrich-rounds-introduce-legislation-to-leverage-artificial-intelligence-for-pandemic-preparedness-and-response"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4972910284996033, "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"}