Federal · House Bill · 118th Congress, 1st Session
HR4704
H.R. 4704 — Artificial Intelligence and Biosecurity Risk Assessment Act

Status ● Failed Effective N/A Passage Likelihood N/A

How Is This Bill Enforced

Enforcement Authority
No private enforcement mechanism. The bill directs the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response to conduct risk assessments and implement strategic initiatives; enforcement is through federal agency obligation under the Public Health Service Act.
Private Right of Action
No private right of action. Enforcement is exclusive to the designated authority.
Penalties
No damages, penalties, or private remedies are established by this bill. The bill creates a federal agency mandate, not a private or civil enforcement regime.

What This Bill Requires

Verbatim statutory text on the left; plain-language analysis and a per-section checklist on the right. Numbered markers cross-link to the matching checklist row.

Statutory Text
Analysis & Obligations
Section 1
Short Title

This Act may be cited as the ''Artificial Intelligence and Biosecurity Risk Assessment Act''.

Establishes the short title of the Act as the Artificial Intelligence and Biosecurity Risk Assessment Act. This section creates no compliance obligations.

Section 2 (new 42 U.S.C. § 300hh–10(h))
Regular Assessment of Emerging Risks
Government

(h) 1 ''(h) ASSESSMENT OF EMERGING RISKS.—In carrying out subsection (b)(4)(I), the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response shall conduct risk assessments and implement strategic initiatives or activities to address whether technical advancements in artificial intelligence, such as open-source artificial intelligence models and large language models, can be used intentionally or unintentionally to develop novel pathogens, viruses, bioweapons, or chemical weapons. Such initiatives and activities may include—

(h)(1) 1 ''(1) regularly monitoring and researching potential global biological catastrophic risks in which biological agents could lead to sudden, extraordinary loss of life and sustained damage to national governments, international relationships, economies, societal stability, or global security; and

(h)(2) 1 ''(2) including in the National Health Security Strategy under section 2802 a summary of the risk assessment conducted under this subsection.''.

This section amends Section 2811 of the Public Health Service Act by adding a new subsection (h) directing the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response to conduct risk assessments addressing whether AI advancements — specifically open-source AI models and large language models — can be used to develop novel pathogens, viruses, bioweapons, or chemical weapons. The directive is mandatory with respect to conducting the assessments, but the enumerated activities (monitoring global biological catastrophic risks and including findings in the National Health Security Strategy) are permissive.

This section imposes obligations exclusively on a federal official and does not create any private-sector compliance duties, reporting requirements, or enforcement mechanisms applicable to developers, deployers, or other non-government entities.

Compliance actions 1 item
1
The Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response must conduct risk assessments and implement strategic initiatives to address whether AI advancements — including open-source AI models and large language models — can be used to develop novel pathogens, viruses, bioweapons, or chemical weapons.

Passage Likelihood

Failed
Status Failed
Final action Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.

Legislative History

2023-07-18 Introduced in House
2023-07-18 Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
2023-07-21 Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.

Entry Last Reviewed

2026-05-15
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