Bill expands screening of U.S. biotech investments going to China.
S. 5316 — BINSA Act · Filed by Pete Ricketts (R-NE) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Aug 6, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill treats biotechnology as a technology needing government screening. U.S. companies must get approval before investing money or sharing drug knowledge with China. The Treasury and State Departments must write rules within one year. The rules will cover licensing agreements, joint ventures, and stock investments. These deals could give Chinese firms access to drug-development or manufacturing skills.
Who it affects
U.S. biotech and pharmaceutical companies are affected. Investors in biotech and patients waiting for new drugs are affected. The bill aims to protect the U.S. drug supply chain from depending too much on China.
One thing to notice
The bill does not define what counts as prohibited or notifiable deals. The Treasury and State Departments will decide the rules later, creating uncertainty for companies.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Aug 6, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 6, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- biotechnology — Science of using living things to make medicines, drugs, and treatments.
- notifiable — Required to be reported to the government, but may be allowed.
- licensing — Permission given by one company to another to use its invention.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (6,689 characters) on Aug 18, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-17.
“Bill expands screening of U.S. biotech investments going to China.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5316/simple Report an error