BIOSECURE Act Faces Senate Roadblocks, Alabama Aims To Fill The Gaps

BIOSECURE Act Faces Senate Roadblocks, Alabama Aims To Fill The Gaps

September 23, 2024, Inside Health Policy

Steve Rademaker’s commentary was included in an Inside Health Policy article exploring the politics around the BIOSECURE Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The article covers how it may be passed and incorporates Steve’s insight into efforts for the bill to be included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Steve told Inside Health Policy that the chances of adding the BIOSECURE Act to the Senate’s version of NDAA are currently slim, as the measure was not included in the managers' amendments for the upper chamber. “There are harder ways to add it . . . if the bill comes to the Senate floor, for example, (and it’s not certain that it will), proponents of the legislation can try to add it at that time,” Steve said. “The fact that the language isn’t in the managers’ amendment suggests there’s opposition, however, so that means this route will be challenging too.”

Discussing other pathways such as including the bill in the House version of the NDAA, Steve says “that’s probably a more viable path once the NDAA is in conference with the House than during Senate floor consideration of the Senate NDAA. And that would require someone in the congressional Leadership (most likely Speaker Johnson) to be committed to the bill and pushing hard to add it.”