U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) on Feb. 2 called for congressional action on a bipartisan bill he cosponsored to strengthen federal oversight of pathogenic agents and high-containment laboratories and to protect Americans from public health and national security threats.
The Preventing Illegal Laboratories and Protecting Public Health Act of 2025, H.R. 5747, which he introduced in October 2025 alongside bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA), has been stalled in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee since its introduction following an FBI investigation into a home in Las Vegas for operating an illegal biological laboratory that may be related to a Chinese Communist Party-linked bio lab in Reedley, Calif.
“This can’t keep happening,” Rep. Kiley. “The federal government must do more to stop illegal labs from operating in our communities. This bipartisan bill closes loopholes that allow dangerous facilities like these to operate under the radar.”
Specifically, H.R. 5747 would require the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, to carry out a program under which the secretary requires each covered distributor of a highly pathogenic agent to comply with certain logbook requirements, according to the text of the bill.