Lawmakers Reintroduce Bill to Tighten Pathogen Lab Oversight

Congress returned a legislative response to the Reedley incident when Representatives Jim Costa David Valadao and Kevin Kiley reintroduced the Preventing Illegal Laboratories and Protecting Public Health Act of 2025 on December 4, 2025. The measure would expand federal oversight of highly pathogenic agents and the facilities that handle them, according to the bill text described by sponsors. Fresno County residents and local institutions could see changes to how dangerous biological materials are tracked and how suspicious facilities are investigated.

Key provisions would require distributors of highly pathogenic agents to maintain federally reviewable transfer logbooks. Those records would need to include purchaser identity and intended use and be retained for at least three years. The bill would also mandate a federal review of the number location and risks of high containment labs and would push for updated national standards for laboratory design and operations. Sponsors proposed the creation of a Public Health Biosafety & Biosecurity Team to coordinate with state and local officials when suspicious labs are identified, and the legislation would commission a feasibility study for a centralized national database of high containment facilities.

Local officials framed the measure as a patch to gaps exposed by the unlicensed Reedley laboratory discovered in 2023. The Reedley episode raised questions about how a facility handling dangerous agents could operate outside robust federal supervision and how local public health and law enforcement could be better integrated with federal biodefense and biosafety resources.

For Fresno County the bill could have direct impacts. Agricultural research centers university labs and private diagnostic facilities may face new recordkeeping obligations and design standards. At the same time the proposed Public Health Biosafety & Biosecurity Team could improve rapid coordination during investigations or potential exposure events, a change that public health officials have said could boost community safety and trust.

The legislation seeks to balance public safety with scientific and agricultural activity, but it will raise practical questions about privacy for researchers and operational costs for smaller labs. If enacted the bill would require federal regulators and local partners to develop clear protocols that protect public health while minimizing undue burdens on legitimate research and testing in Fresno County.