The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) has endorsed the America’s Living Library Act, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Todd Young (R-IN) and Representatives Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and Ro Khanna (D-CA). The legislation recognizes biological data as a strategic national resource and aims to leverage the vast biodiversity of U.S. public lands to drive scientific and economic innovation.
The bill stems from a recommendation by the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB), on which the bill’s lead sponsors serve as Commissioners. The NSCEB identified that while the U.S. National Park System covers 85 million acres of diverse climates and biodiversity, the nation has yet to fully leverage this wealth of biological data for innovation and national security.
The bill would establish the America’s Living Library Project, a pilot program within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to systematically collect, catalog, and sequence genomic data from species throughout the National Park System. By creating a publicly available, AI-ready database of genomic information from animals, plants, fungi, and microbes, the initiative will provide the foundational data necessary to fuel breakthroughs in medicine, agriculture, and industrial production.
AIBS joins a broad coalition of supporters, including the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), ConservAmerica, Ginkgo Bioworks, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), and the Natural Science Collections Alliance. The legislation is also cosponsored by Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR), Chris Coons (D-DE), Steve Daines (R-MT), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Tim Sheehy (R-MT).
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