ARI endorses bipartisan legislation to screen gene
synthesis orders
Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) today introduced the Biosecurity Modernization and Innovation Act of 2025, a new bipartisan bill to establish mandatory gene synthesis security screening standards. Americans for Responsible Innovation endorsed the legislation, which responds to growing concerns that advances in artificial intelligence lower the barrier for malicious actors to design and acquire dangerous biological sequences. The Biosecurity Modernization and Innovation Act would require companies that manufacture or sell synthetic DNA to screen orders for hazardous sequences, verify customer identities, and implement safeguards to prevent “split orders” across providers.
“Gene synthesis is an incredible scientific advancement that has brought benefits for basic research, pandemic response, and the U.S. biotech sector,” said Americans for Responsible Innovation President Brad Carson. “But systems designed to manage the risks of gene synthesis and complementary AI capabilities have not kept pace. Right now, there are virtually no binding federal standards to stop bad actors from designing deadly pathogens with help from AI and mail-ordering their custom DNA online. This bill gets to the heart of that gap. It sets clear, enforceable rules for the entire industry, protects public safety, and does so in a way that preserves the innovation that makes the U.S. a global leader in biotechnology.”
In addition to requiring new safeguards at gene synthesis labs, the Biosecurity Modernization and Innovation Act establishes strong enforcement mechanisms, consolidates fragmented federal biosecurity authorities, and creates a biotechnology governance “sandbox” to ensure security keeps pace with rapid innovation.
The legislation builds on bipartisan momentum, including previous congressional proposals, executive actions from both the Trump and Biden administrations, and recommendations from the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology. President Trump’s AI Action Plan also recommends measures to improve gene synthesis screening and customer verification.
For more on AI-enabled biosecurity risks, see ARI’s recent white paper on gene synthesis screening, including policy analyses examining how AI is lowering the barriers to designing and acquiring dangerous biological sequences.
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Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to policy advocacy in the public interest, focused on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Learn more at ARI.us.