DHS must plan better ways to detect biological threats.
H.R. 706 — DHS Biodetection Improvement Act · Filed by Dale Strong (R-AL) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jan 23, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill tells DHS to check how it works with Energy Department labs. DHS must make a plan to get better tools for the BioWatch program. BioWatch watches for biological threats. DHS must report to Congress in 180 days. The report must include a plan to buy and set up better detection tools. The plan must include ways to test how well the tools work. DHS must work with state, local, and tribal groups. DHS must also work with private firms on future threat detection programs.
Who it affects
The bill affects DHS and Energy Department labs that do threat detection work. It affects state, local, and tribal groups and private firms. These groups may help with threat detection work. The bill helps protect the public by making threat detection better.
One thing to notice
The bill asks DHS to report back in 180 days. That is a short time to make a full plan.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Jan 23, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 23, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Homeland Security and Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology”
- Mar 10, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Green (TN) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
- Mar 11, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $20,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 21 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Dale Strong, who sponsored the bill, received $647,420 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Chartercare Health of Ri (forrmerly Known As Chartercare Health Partners) — $20,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- BioWatch program — A government program that watches for biological threats in the air.
- threat detection — Tools and methods to find dangerous germs or diseases.
- DHS — The Department of Homeland Security, a U.S. government agency.
- Energy Department — The U.S. government agency that runs national science and research labs.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,283 characters) on Jul 25, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,358 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 23, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-19.
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