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(Washington, DC) - Today, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology is holding a Full Committee Markup of H.R. 3168, (link is external)National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Reauthorization Act of 2025(link is external); H.R. 8437,(link is external) (link is external)Geo POWER Act(link is external); H.R. 9326,(link is external) (link is external)USA Act(link is external); and H.R. 8981, (link is external)SCALE Biology Act(link is external).
Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren's (D-CA) opening statement as prepared for the record is below:
Thank you, Chairman Babin for holding this markup today. It's a busy day on the Hill so I hope we can move through the bills and amendments quickly.
The first bill on the roster is the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Reauthorization Act of 2025. Earthquakes are an unfortunate fact of life in California. Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Hawaii reported that the San Jacinto and San Andreas faults, are at their highest stress level in 1000 years. It's scary to imagine, but we can prepare and minimize loss of life and infrastructure by implementing the best possible building codes, warning-systems, and post-earthquake responses. This Committee has a role in making that possible. The last time we reauthorized the NEHRP program was in the 115th Congress and it expired in 2023. The Senate passed a comprehensive NEHRP reauthorization months ago, which we could have expediently passed into law. The ANS we are considering today adopts most of the language included in the Senate version with some additional improvements. This legislation will go a long way to protecting both life and property in all areas of the country at risk from earthquakes. I support this bill and the amendment made to it and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.
The GEO Power Act continues this committee's tradition of developing good bipartisan energy legislation aimed at diversifying our clean energy sources and tackling the climate crisis. Yesterday, the House passed the Next Generation Geothermal Research and Development Act in an overwhelming bipartisan vote. Before us today is an important bill that authorizes the next step from what just passed the House - by enabling the scale-up of promising new geothermal technologies into commercially viable solutions. I thank my colleagues, Representatives Begich and Salinas for their leadership on this bill.
Next is the Utilize Standards for All Act. This legislation would address some of the many challenges facing U.S. leadership in international standardization activities. It aims to foster greater US participation in international standards development bodies and to encourage those organizations to conduct their meetings in the United States. While this bill is a good first step, we must remain focused on breaking down the biggest barrier to U.S.-based standards meetings, which is our own government-imposed limitations on visas for foreign technical experts to enter the U.S. for these forums. We also need to ensure we fund these efforts with appropriations. I support my colleague, Representative Webster's bill, and I hope we can continue to work together to address the full range of challenges to continued U.S. leadership in international standards setting.
The last bill on the roster is Representative McClain-Delaney's SCALE Biology Act. Several weeks ago, a team of scientists led by Dr. Kate Adamala at the University of Minnesota reported that they had successfully synthesized a cell for the very first time in history. This dazzling feat demonstrates the U.S.'s burgeoning capability in new forms of biotechnology.
The best way to build on this momentous innovation is to elevate our ability to measure the biological inputs that made this possible in the first place, and ensure we can pursue this innovation responsibly, safely, and securely. The SCALE Biology Act does all of this and reinforces U.S. leadership in engineering biology and biomanufacturing. I am very proud of my Democratic colleague's hard work and commitment to this issue and to the work at NIST.
And with that said, Mr. Chairman, I am excited to get started on today's markup and yield back the balance of my time.
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