Welcome to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman John Joyce, M.D. (PA-13), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, delivered the following opening statement at today’s hearing titled Examining Biosecurity at the Intersection of AI and Biology.

Subcommittee Chairman Joyce’s opening statement as prepared for delivery:

“Good morning, and welcome to today’s hearing entitled “Examining Biosecurity at the Intersection of AI and Biology.

“The goal of today’s hearing is to examine a rapidly evolving threat landscape at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnology. This convergence promises extraordinary breakthroughs for medicine, public health, and scientific discovery. It also introduces profound new risks to the safety and security of the American people.

“Our hearing today is about minimizing the risk of misuse to protect national security, while also maintaining public support of AI’s ability to assist with miraculous things—like finding life-saving cures for diseases.

“For decades, the United States has led the world in biotechnology. But what was once confined to specialized labs with highly trained scientists is now increasingly accessible far beyond traditional boundaries. Synthetic biology tools have become less expensive and more widely available. For example, a basic CRISPR gene-editing kit can be purchased online for under $300.

“Advanced AI systems—like large language models, or LLMs, and biological design tools capable of generating, troubleshooting, and optimizing biological designs—are moving faster than our existing oversight frameworks were built to anticipate.

“In recent years, studies have shown that cutting-edge AI models can walk users step-by-step through complex biological processes, including those relevant to developing or modifying dangerous pathogens. These tools can assist experts in breakthrough research, but they may also enable individuals with far less training to bypass barriers that once protected against accidental or intentional misuse. Some LLMs have even been shown to outperform PhD-level virologists on advanced troubleshooting tasks.

“There is also early evidence that AI systems can design entirely new biological entities. A recent study demonstrated that an AI model generated multiple synthetic viruses—some with capabilities that researchers previously believed were impossible.

“As a physician, I must acknowledge the extraordinary promise that AI-enabled biotechnology holds for patient care. AI is accelerating drug discovery, improving protein modeling, and enabling the development of therapies with unprecedented precision.

“But the same technological advancements can also raise the stakes for biosecurity. These risks are not theoretical. National security experts warn that adversarial nations—including China, North Korea, Iran, Russia, and others—may seek to exploit AI-enabled biological design tools for malicious purposes. We must take those warnings seriously.

“AI-enabled biotechnology presents issues that our current frameworks may not adequately account for. Existing government oversight systems—such as the Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC) policy—may not apply when an AI-designed organism is not identified as a Select Agent, not known to infect humans, or not developed with federal funds.

“The Trump administration has taken steps to keep up with such advancements, but the federal government must continue to carefully assess whether our current safeguards and reporting systems are adequate in an era of rapidly advancing AI technology.

“I want to thank our witnesses for being here today. Your expertise will help guide Congress as we confront this challenge.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Congressman Morgan Griffith (VA-09), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, and Congressman Troy Balderson (OH-12), Vice-Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, celebrated the House passage of two bills advanced by the Committee on Energy and Commerce to strengthen grid security and support the use of reliable and affordable power.

H.R. 3616, the Reliable Power Act, introduced by Congressman Balderson (OH-12), improves federal rulemaking to ensure future federal regulations that impact power generation will not harm electric reliability, especially in regions already vulnerable to blackouts. H.R. 3632, the Power Plant Reliability Act, led by Congressman Griffith (VA-09), enhances existing tools under the Federal Power Act for states and grid operators to contest the closure of power plants in neighboring states if there is an impact on reliability. The legislation also requires power plants to provide a 5-year notice of any plans to retire.

Attributable to Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce:

“To support reliable and affordable electricity for hard-working American families, we cannot afford to take baseload power offline or burden our grid with misguided regulations that prevent delivery of 365/24/7 power to our communities,” said Chairman Guthrie. “The Power Plant Reliability Act enhances the tools available to states and grid operators to keep vital power plants operational and prevent blackouts. Further, the Reliable Power Act ensures that red tape and federal rulemaking will no longer harm electric reliability, especially in communities that are at risk of potential blackouts. The ongoing reliability crisis facing our nation has been caused by Democrat policies designed to drive out baseload power in favor of wind and solar that cannot meet our current needs. Thank you to Chairman Griffith and Congressman Balderson for leading this critical legislation to strengthen our grid and lower electricity prices.”

Attributable to Congressman Morgan Griffith (VA-09), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health:

“Because of radical ‘Green New Deal’ policies that shun reliable forms of energy like natural gas, coal and nuclear, our electric grid faces a brewing crisis of premature baseload power plant retirements,” said Chairman Griffith. “My bill, the Power Plant Reliability Act, will help shield Americans from blackout threats and ensure the reliable delivery of power to American homes, factories, and communities. Thanks to strong leaders like Speaker Johnson, Leader Scalise, Whip Emmer, Chairwoman McClain, Chairman Guthrie and Chairwoman Foxx, the United States Congress is focused on supporting affordable and reliable energy solutions for the American people.”

Attributable to Congressman Troy Balderson (OH-12), Vice-Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations:

“America is facing a reliability crisis–one made worse by the last administration’s regulatory chaos and radical climate agenda,” said Congressman Balderson. “After unelected bureaucrats spent years waging war on American energy, President Trump and his Administration have finally reined in agency overreach and restored energy dominance as a national priority. The Reliable Power Act puts common-sense guardrails in place so families aren’t left facing blackouts, price spikes, or uncertainty every time they flip a switch.”

BACKGROUND:

H.R. 3632, the Power Plant Reliability Act—Rep. Griffith (VA-09)

• This legislation enhances existing tools for states and grid operators to contest the closure of power plants in neighboring states if there is an impact on grid reliability. The bill also requires power plants to provide a 5-year notice of any plans to retire.
• The states with the highest electricity prices are overwhelmingly the same states with the most aggressive forms of renewable portfolio standards, and this legislation will help to ensure that baseload power plants don’t go offline in the places that need them most.

H.R. 3616, the Reliable Power Act—Rep. Balderson (OH-12)

• This legislation addresses the threat of rolling blackouts caused by the Biden-Harris Administration’s over reliance on wind and solar power by improving federal rulemaking to ensure that future federal regulations that impact power generation will not harm electric reliability.
• The bill amends the Federal Power Act to require FERC review and comment on any federal rules that impact electricity generation during periods of high reliability risks, like the extreme cold we are already seeing this winter, to ensure new rules will not harm electric power reliability.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, delivered remarks on the House floor regarding H.R. 6703, the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, legislation that establishes new rules for association health plans, modifies requirements for individual and group health coverage, requires contracts between plan sponsors and PBMs to meet certain standards, and appropriates funding for reductions in cost sharing.

Chairman Guthrie’s remarks on H.R. 6703, the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, as prepared for delivery:

“I rise today in strong support of H.R. 6703, the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act.

“When the Democrats passed Obamacare over a decade ago, they sold the bill on the promise that it would lower health care costs and preserve plan options.

“‘If you like your plan, you can keep it. If you like your doctor, you can keep them.’

“These famous last words still haunt us.

“Today, we know that Obamacare has not lived up to Democrats’ lofty promises; instead, the consequences of that bill continue to burden American patients as they have since its enactment.

“Health care spending has nearly doubled since Obamacare passed. Health plan options have been decimated by Democratic overreach, and millions of Americans are saddled with medical debt across the country.

“Obamacare premiums are up 80 percent since the program’s inception, with patients paying on average $5,000 out of their own pocket to hit their deductible, and the average out of pocket spending maximum for one year is over $20,000!

“Without a doubt, Obamacare has proven to be unaffordable and unsustainable.

“In an attempt to respond to the affordability crisis created by Obamacare, Democrats leveraged a public health emergency to shovel hundreds of billions of dollars to big health insurance plans to mask the rising unaffordability of coverage.

“First in the American Rescue plan of 2021, and then again in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2023, Democrats sent temporary taxpayer funded ‘enhanced’ premium tax credits directly to the coffers of big health insurance plans.

“They did this without a single Republican vote of support.

“On both occasions, Democrats chose to make these COVID Credits temporary. They could have made them permanent, but they chose instead to focus on advancing priorities for wealthy Americans to buy subsidized EVs and for politically connected cronies to siphon federal dollars out of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction slush Fund.

“Now, Democrats are uniting behind a policy to send billions more taxpayer dollars to big health insurance plans.

“With the Democrats’ temporary COVID Credits set to expire at the end of the year, they are attempting to turn their policy failures into political gains—using the American people as collateral.

“It is worth reiterating – Democrats funded temporary band aids to cover up unaffordable care, they set the expiration dates, and they chose to fund liberal priorities instead of making them permanent.

“While Democrats continue to fearmonger, I wanted to shed light on what Republicans are doing to fix the Democrats’ affordability crisis, with policies that deliver real, lasting relief to the American people.

“This includes:

• Eliminating health plan gimmicks like silver loading, which will lower ACA premiums by 11 percent;
• Increasing transparency for pharmacy benefit manager middlemen and lowering drug costs for all Americans; and
• Increasing affordable plan choices and putting patients back in the driver’s seat for their own health care choices by instituting Association Health Plans, CHOICE Arrangements, and stop-loss insurance.

“This proposal results in more than double the premium reduction than the Democrats’ extension of the enhanced COVID subsidies. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the Republican plan before us will lower premiums by 11 percent, compared to just 5 percent from continuing the Democrats’ subsidies.

“These policies will also lower health care costs for all Americans, not just the roughly-seven percent of Americans enrolled in Obamacare.

“And many of these policies are bipartisan! Ending silver loading, addressing nefarious PBM practices, and strengthening the employer insurance marketplace have all garnered broad bipartisan support.

“I hope we can overlook the politics that are clouding the issue, come together to pass this bill, and continue work together into 2026 to deliver more affordable health care to all Americans.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Today, Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Congressman John Joyce, M.D. (PA-13), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requesting a briefing to better understand the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) recent actions and ongoing work to enhance safety within the organ procurement and transplantation system. On Thursday, September 18, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced major efforts to improve safety, transparency, and efficiency within the organ procurement and transplantation system, including the decertification of an organ procurement organization (OPO) for the first time in U.S. history. According to the announcement , the decision was made “after an investigation uncovered years of unsafe practices, poor training, chronic underperformance, understaffing, and paperwork errors.” The Committee has a history of ensuring patient safety remains the highest priority in our organ procurement and transplantation system, as evident from the Committee’s work last Congress on organ transplantation and donation issues as well as its oversight this Congress. As a part of its ongoing investigation, the Committee requests that CMS respond to questions, including those related to the decertification of the OPO in South Florida and the prevalence of incidents similar to those outlined in the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) investigative report, to ensure patient safety remains a top priority. Read the full letter HERE . “While the Committee applauds efforts taken by CMS to uphold the highest standards of care to which all OPOs are expected to adhere, HHS’s announcement decertifying the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency illustrates the urgency of this moment and why the subcommittee is not finished with our oversight of the organ transplant system,” said Chairmen Guthrie and Joyce. “It is our moral obligation as members of Congress to establish safeguards and prevent these harmful practices from persisting further, and we look forward to obtaining answers from the agency about the prevalence of these incidents, as well as how CMS plans to proceed with prioritizing patient safety first and foremost.” Background: During the 118th Congress, the Committee on Energy and Commerce led the passage of the Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act to both modernize the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and allow HRSA to institute a competitive contracting process to find the best contractors for various OPTN functions. This legislation was signed into law on September 22, 2023.  On March 20, 2024, the Committee launched an investigation into the organ procurement and transplantation system by sending a letter to United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) requesting information related to concerns surrounding data security and operability, patient safety and equity, and conflicts of interest.   On March 20, 2024, the Committee also sent a letter to HRSA requesting information related to implementation of the Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act as well as other concerns related to effective oversight and management.  On September 11, 2024, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing that focused on the implementation of reforms at the OPTN, including the need for stronger oversight and accountability as well as ongoing patient safety concerns.  During the hearing, questions were raised related to allegations of mismanagement and patient safety concerns after patients began exhibiting signs of increased neurologic function after being previously deemed suitable as an organ donation candidate. Several of these allegations, particularly those related to patient safety, were later substantiated through the findings contained in HRSA’s March 2025 report.  On March 24, 2025, HRSA’s Division of Transplantation issued a report that summarized the findings of its investigation into KYDA, the OPO now known as Network for Hope, which serves Kentucky and parts of Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana.   HRSA’s investigation examined an “index case” and an additional 351 unique cases of authorized, not recovered (ANR) patients. This means that the patients were considered for donation after circulatory death recovery, but no organs were transplanted. The report showed that nearly 30 percent of the cases “had concerning features.” The concerning features included problems with patient-family interactions, medical assessments and team interactions, recognition of high neurologic function, and recognition and documentation of drugs in records.  On May 28, 2025, HRSA issued a corrective action plan to the OPTN, which directed the OTPN to take specific actions within a specified period of time, including developing a 12-month OPTN monitoring plan for KYDA to address concerns identified. The corrective action plan also requires the OPTN to propose policies for public comment to improve safeguards for potential donation after circulatory death (DCD) patients in the organ procurement process and increase information shared with patient families regarding DCD organ procurement.  On July 22, 2025, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing examining concerning practices within our nation’s organ procurement and transplant system that were identified by HRSA’s investigation.  On September 12, 2025, the Committee sent a bipartisan letter to HRSA requesting a briefing on its ongoing oversight of patient safety in our nation’s organ procurement and transplant system. ###

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, Congressman John Joyce, M.D. (PA-13), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment, sent a letter to Gene Dodaro, the Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), requesting an assessment of available or emerging technologies and materials that could be used to supplement critical minerals in semiconductors. “Critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements are essential for technologies used in many sectors of the economy, including energy, transportation, national defense, health care, and consumer electronics,” said Chairmen Joyce and Palmer . “These minerals are vulnerable to supply-chain disruptions for several reasons, including U.S. reliance on foreign sources, as well as the rapid growth in demand for critical minerals in the U.S. and abroad.” CLICK HERE to read the full letter. The letter asks the GAO to examine: The status of domestic technologies and supplemental materials, such as critical minerals found in mine waste, tailings, or reclaimed from end-of-life batteries and electronic waste, that can serve as substitutes for foreign-sourced critical minerals from non-allied nations needed for semiconductors and energy grid or power electronics, including impacts on material and product performance. Key technological challenges to the development or adoption of these domestic supplemental and materials to advance the diversification of U.S. critical mineral sources. BACKGROUND: In May, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on ways to enhance our critical mineral supply chains. Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans are committed to strengthening our critical mineral supply chains and finding solutions to reduce our reliance on foreign sources, particularly when it comes to foreign adversaries like China. The Trump Administration has also worked hard to bolster these supply chains. Critical minerals are essential to American technologies and industries, and finding innovative domestic solutions that can contribute to our independence from non-allied nations is essential as we work to onshore American innovation and strengthen our national security. ###

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Congressman John Joyce, M.D. (PA-13), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and Congressman Gus Bilirakis (FL-12), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, sent a letter to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) President Charlie Baker following the recent announcement that student athletes and athletic department staff will be allowed to bet on professional sports. KEY EXCERPTS: “The Committee on Energy and Commerce is examining the NCAA’s recent policy change permitting student athletes and athletic department staff to bet on professional sports.” [...] To assist the Committee in its oversight, we request a briefing by no later than November 13, 2025, that addresses the following: Why is the NCAA changing its policy allowing student athletes to bet on professional sports? Has the NCAA conducted any studies, analyses, or reviews of the impact of gambling on student athletes? If so, what are the results? What role did they play in the NCAA’s decision to allow student athletes to bet on professional sports? How does this change allow the NCAA, the conferences, and the member schools to better protect the integrity of college games and encourage healthy habits for student-athletes who choose to engage in betting activities on professional sports? How is the NCAA engaging with athletic conferences, member institutions, and teams to address questions and concerns about this rule change? Amid recent allegations of illegal sports betting among student athletes and concerns expressed by member institutions, is NCAA reconsidering implementation of the policy? What guardrails are in place to prevent the type of illegal sports betting activity that is allegedly occurring in the NCAA and NBA, considering that some student athletes will go on to become professional athletes? Please provide details about any fraudulent, illegal, and alleged betting practices in connection with NCAA players, coaches, and officials, including the actions of NCAA players identified in recent infraction decisions; as well as prior instances, some of which are identified above. Please describe the NCAA’s “layered integrity monitoring program,” for maintaining competition integrity and pursuing sports betting violations. What gaps, if any, are in existing regulations that allow illegal betting schemes to occur in college sports? BACKGROUND: On October 24, 2025, the Committee on Energy and Commerce launched its investigation into sports fixing and illegal gambling after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) unsealed indictments of current and former NBA players and coaches. An initial announcement stated that, effective November 1, 2025, student athletes and athletic department staff in all three NCAA divisions would be permitted to bet on professional sports. A few days before the policy change was supposed to take effect, the Division I Board of Directors voted to delay implementation of the rule change across all three divisions to November 22, 2025. A recent NCAA press release stated that “enforcement staff has opened investigations into potential sports betting violations by approximately 30 current or former men's basketball student-athletes.” CLICK HERE to read the full letter.