Sponsors (10)
The bill builds U.S. genomic infrastructure and standardized national datasets to advance conservation, research, and domestic biosecurity—at the cost of new federal spending, restrictions that may impede international collaboration, and privacy/oversight risks that will need careful mitigation.
Researchers, conservation managers, and the public gain a large, standardized nationwide genomic dataset for animals, plants, fungi, and microbes from National Park System units, improving biodiversity research, conservation planning, and downstream scientific discoveries.
The bill funds new federal capacity (USGS, Smithsonian, USDA) for sequencing, curation, and long-term sample storage, creating federal jobs and sustained infrastructure for biological collections and research support.
Long-term domestic preservation of biological samples and limits on export keep materials available for U.S. researchers and improve oversight for biosecurity and domestic preparedness.
All taxpayers bear ongoing new federal costs—likely tens of millions of dollars annually—to operate sequencing, curation, storage, and program management.
Restrictions on export and U.S.-only storage/controlled access may limit international scientific collaboration and could exclude legitimate foreign researchers or complicate longstanding research partnerships.
Public release of genomic data and associated metadata—even with withheld precise locations—raises risks to sensitive locality information and protections for Indigenous cultural resources and local communities.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes a USGS‑run pilot to collect, catalog, and whole‑genome sequence organisms from National Park units, subject to applicable wildlife and permitting laws.
Introduced March 5, 2026 by Todd Young · Last progress March 5, 2026
Creates a pilot program run by the U.S. Geological Survey (within the Department of the Interior) to collect, catalog, and whole‑genome sequence samples of animals, plants, fungi, and microbes from designated units of the National Park System. The program establishes definitions (including “high‑priority species” and “foreign entity of concern”), requires interagency coordination to set priorities, and requires that all sampling follow existing wildlife and permitting laws.