WASHINGTON, D.C. – Scientists and stakeholders around the country are commending U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, for introducing the Risky Research Review Act, a first-of-its-kind proposal to establish a Life Sciences Research Security Board within the Executive Branch. This independent board will oversee the funding of gain-of-function research and other high-risk life sciences research that potentially poses a threat to public health, safety, or national security.
The Life Sciences Research Security Board will serve as an independent body responsible for thoroughly evaluating gain-of-function research and other studies involving the collection, surveillance, genetic modification, or synthetic creation of potential pandemic pathogens. Currently, the funding and study of life sciences research lack sufficient government oversight, allowing American taxpayer dollars to be spent without appropriate checks. Dr. Paul’s legislation establishes a stringent review process for the board to assess high-risk research and decide whether tax dollars should support specific research proposals.
You can read S.4667, the Risky Research Review Act HERE.
Statements of support from scientists for the Risky Research Review Act below:
“This is a very important bill which when implemented will ensure national security is prioritized when making US life science funding decisions. If we had this bill in place ten years ago we could have prevented the Covid pandemic.” – Dr. Redfield, M.D., Former Director (2018-2021), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
“The Risky Research Review Act is a great step forward toward the goal of protecting the American people from scientists conducting the kinds of dangerous experiments that likely led to the covid pandemic. If the bill is passed, scientists will no longer have carte blanche to regulate themselves to sign off on such experiments. It is far past time for the people who pay for the scientists’ work to have a voice in the risks they take on the peoples’ behalf.” – Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., PH.D., Professor of Health Policy, Stanford University
“Research with pandemic risks can result in millions of deaths and trillions in economic damage. Research with such extreme outcomes must be subject to external and independent oversight. A responsible government would put in place measures and systems to ensure high visibility into such research and accountability when lab-based outbreaks ensue.” – Dr. Alina Chan is a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard, and a co-author of “Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19”
“I have closely reviewed the legislative proposal, and I strongly support the legislative proposal. The gaps in current US oversight of research on potential pandemic pathogens place the US at risk of research-related pandemics, with medical, economic, and national-security impacts as disruptive and damaging as, or even more disruptive and damaging than, those of the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing the gaps in oversight is essential and urgent. The legislative proposal sets forth an approach to close the gaps in oversight and, appropriately, addresses only the small subset of biomedical research that poses highest risk (with definitions tailored to cover less than 0.1% of biomedical research) and balances the need for strengthened oversight with the need not to constrain biomedical research that could provide positive medical, industrial, or national-security value. The proposal sets forth an approach that will close the gaps with minimal costs and minimal adverse impacts. Thank you in advance for your leadership in considering and approving this legislation.” – Richard H. Ebright, Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Laboratory Director, Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University
“The Risky Research Review Act is historic. For the first time, the risk of a laboratory accident starting a pandemic worse than COVID-19, which killed over one million Americans, is being taken out of the hands of the scientists doing the work and placed in an independent agency. Senator Paul should be commended for his leadership in putting forward this legislation. Historians will compare this to the 1946 establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission by President Truman, which had the same goal: make sure advanced technology, in that case atomic energy, are only used for the benefit of the American citizens. COVID was a bipartisan killer; this bill should be strongly supported by both parties.” – Steven Quay, M.D., PH.D., Chief Executive Officer Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. and Former Faculty, Stanford University School of Medicine
“Senator Paul’s legislation to establish the Risky Research Review Board is both necessary and urgent. It addresses major shortcomings in both the current guidelines for oversight of high-risk pathogen research and the new guidelines scheduled to take effect in 2025. Critically, the legislation would replace decades of self-regulation with an independent oversight mechanism for federally funded high-risk pathogen research, the first of its kind. This is much-needed, common-sense legislation that, unlike the existing guidelines and those scheduled to take effect in 2025, will safeguard the public from the threat of lab-generated pandemics.” – Bryce Nickels, Co- Founder, Biosafety Now and Professor of Genetics, Rutgers University
“Senator Rand Paul has introduced an important new bill for the oversight of potentially dangerous gain-of-function research. I highly commend the Senator for this critical effort to improve the safety of the US’ biodefense enterprise.” – Meryl Nass, M.D.
Additionally, the bill is endorsed by Neil Harrison, Ph.D., Columbia University in his personal capacity.
Statements of support from stakeholders for the Risky Research Review Act below:
“Senator Paul’s legislation would insulate self-interested parties from grantmaking decisions, and add impartial, scientific feedback to the proceedings. It’s also critical that we have a national security check on this cashflow, which this bill provides. We cannot afford to have another grantee like EcoHealth Alliance funding dangerous research in an adversarial nation without stakeholders fully understanding the implications. The public now understands the enormous health and economic consequences at stake.” – Adam Andrzejewski, Founder, Open The Books
“Having first exposed Dr. Fauci’s wasteful spending on the Wuhan animal lab’s dangerous gain-of-function experiments that likely infected Patient Zero and caused COVID, we commend Sen. Paul for introducing this bill and his years of outstanding leadership in efforts to crack down on dangerous taxpayer-funded animal experiments in the US, China and beyond.”– Anthony Bellotti, Founder and President, White Coat Waste Project
“The animal welfare community has long recognized the risks of gain-of-function research, which often entails experiments on animal subjects and can have long-term consequences for humans and animals alike. More vigorous oversight of federally funded life sciences research, whether foreign or domestic, is a policy that should unite Americans of all political stripes.” – Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy
“Dr. Rand Paul has been at the forefront of the fight to safeguard against a runaway health care bureaucracy which failed during the COVID pandemic and lied to Congress and the American people repeatedly. This legislation will establish an independent, non-conflicted agency to scrutinize, review and approve or disapprove of dangerous life sciences research to ensure that U.S. bureaucrats are never again left to their own devices when spending taxpayer dollars to develop dangerous viruses in foreign labs. Americans for Limited Government supports Dr. Paul’s effort to put a firewall between our nation’s health care bureaucracy and dangerous decisions that put the world’s health at risk.” – Richard Manning, President, Americans For Limited Government
“Dr. Rand Paul advocates for responsible, safe, and accountable science. His Risky Research Review Act establishes a Life Sciences Research Security Board to oversee high-risk research funding, preventing conflicts of interest and ensuring responsible use of tax dollars.” – George Landrith, President, Frontiers of Freedom
“Rand Paul’s bill would bring critical accountability to federal biological research activities by creating a single oversight board reporting directly to the president and subject to Senate advice and consent. Federal entities should not use US taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous research without accountability, and Congress should act immediately to pass this legislation.” – Phil Kerpen, President, American Commitment
“On behalf of our over 2 million AMAC members, we applaud Senator Paul’s initiative to establish this Board, which is clearly needed given the sadly free-wheeling abuse we have experienced from the Wuhan-originated pandemic that was spawned by NIH “gain-of-function” funding. The oversight proposed in the Senator’s bill will provide an important safeguard and check on federal funding for high-risk life sciences research.” – Bob Carlstrom, President, AMAC Action
“Sen. Rand Paul has taken a major step toward ensuring we never again have unaccountable scientific bureaucrats experimenting us into a global pandemic.” – Jim Hanson, President, America Matters
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