Sponsors (8)
The bill expands public reference genomes and metadata for aquatic species and funds local sequencing capacity to advance conservation and research, but it imposes modest new federal costs and raises risks around sensitive location data, administrative burden, and potential biosecurity/commercial misuse.
Researchers, conservation managers, state and federal resource agencies, and nonprofits gain publicly available, reference-quality genomes and associated metadata for aquatic species (including those protected under ESA, MMPA, Magnuson-Stevens), improving species identification, monitoring, and management decisions.
Tribes, universities, and nonprofits receive funding and technical assistance to carry out sequencing work, building local capacity, supporting research partnerships, and creating opportunities for tribal and academic participation.
Making previously nonpublic genomes and metadata publicly available increases transparency and enables broader scientific use, data sharing, and innovation across research and educational institutions.
Tribal communities, small commercial fishers, and other stakeholders risk exposure of culturally or commercially sensitive location or species information when genomic and metadata are publicly released, which could enable misuse or harm to those communities.
Public genomic data could create biosecurity or commercial risks (e.g., for aquaculture, pathogen-related information, or proprietary uses), potentially enabling misuse or economic harm to industry actors.
NOAA and covered entities (state agencies, tribes, universities, nonprofits) will face added administrative and staff burdens to collect, vouch, sequence, manage, and curate metadata and specimens, which could divert resources from other work.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a federal program to sequence, catalog, and publicly share reference genomes for aquatic species and funds technical assistance to partners.
Introduced February 13, 2025 by Dave Min · Last progress February 13, 2025
Requires the Secretary (administered through NOAA) to create and run a federal program that sequences, catalogs, and shares high-quality reference genomes for aquatic species to support science, conservation, management, and enforcement. The program will work with museums, universities, tribes, aquaria, and other covered entities to obtain vouchered, taxonomist-verified specimens or genetic samples, produce nuclear/mitochondrial/chloroplast genome sequences as appropriate, collect and store metadata following FAIR principles, and make previously nonpublic genomes publicly available. It authorizes $2,000,000 per year for FY2025–2031 and requires submission of genomes, raw data, and metadata to NCBI within 360 days of completing sequencing; Tribal governments retain exclusive authority over whether and when to submit sequencing data they generate or provide for public release.