Sponsors (5)
The bill creates a centralized federal institute to accelerate biomedical research and public-health preparedness, at the likely cost of higher taxpayer spending, potential shifts in funding away from existing programs, and added legal exposure for researchers and institutions.
Patients (including those with chronic conditions) and health systems gain potential access to faster development of treatments and public-health countermeasures due to expanded, coordinated federal biomedical research funding and programs.
Federal, academic, and private scientists and researchers receive a dedicated institute to fund and coordinate biomedical R&D, likely increasing grant opportunities, programs, and support for research activities.
Public-health preparedness could improve because centralized research coordination integrates a new institute into HHS structures, potentially strengthening responses to biological threats and emergencies.
Taxpayers may face higher federal spending to staff and operate the new institute and to fund its research programs.
Centralizing research authority in a new institute could shift funding priorities away from existing programs and institutes, disadvantaging some researchers and health institutions that previously relied on those funds.
Researchers and institutions could face new regulatory or criminal exposure because amendments to 18 U.S.C. § 216 extend criminal penalties and injunction authority to activities involving the institute.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds a new National Institute for Biomedical Research and Development to the Public Health Service Act and updates statutory and criminal-code cross-references to include it.
Creates a new federal research body, the National Institute for Biomedical Research and Development, by adding it into the Public Health Service Act and updating related statutory lists and references. The bill also amends federal criminal/injunction provisions to ensure the new institute is covered by existing enforcement language. The text integrates the new institute into existing law (listing it among other institutes and updating cross-references) but does not specify funding or detailed program authorities; implementing the institute would likely need further administrative steps and appropriations.
Introduced March 5, 2026 by Rashida Tlaib · Last progress March 5, 2026