Protecting U.S. Biodefense and Pandemic Preparedness: Rep. McClain Delaney, Maryland Senators Demand Answers about NIAID Lab Readiness at Fort Detrick

WASHINGTON - This week, Congresswoman April McClain Delaney and U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks (all D-Md.) sent a letterpressing the Trump Administration to address concerns about the status and future of a laboratory at Fort Detrick that is the nation's first line of defense for biodefense and preparedness research, which helps protects Americans from emerging infectious diseases.

The letter follows earlier correspondencefrom Maryland lawmakers to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya on June 10, 2025, regarding the safety stand-down at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick (IRF-Frederick). The lawmakers highlighted significant developments since that time, including organizational restructuring and recent reports that NIAID is deprioritizing biodefense and pandemic preparedness research.

"We are seeking answers on these developments and have serious concerns about the impact these changes will have on our nation's readiness to address emerging infectious diseases and biological threats," the lawmakers wrote."NIAID, one of the 27 Institutes and Centers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), leads U.S. research efforts to diagnose, prevent, and treat high-consequence infectious diseases such as Ebola, anthrax, and SARS-CoV-2. The IRF-Frederick is one of the few facilities in the world capable of conducting research at Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4), including advanced medical imaging of animal models under maximum containment. The facility plays a critical role in our nation's biodefense infrastructure and in the development of new diagnostics, vaccines, and medical countermeasures against deadly pathogens."

"These developments at IRF-Frederick and NIAID occur in the broader context of unprecedented disruption at NIH. NIAID has lost more grant funding by dollar amount than any other NIH Institute, and more than half of NIH Institutes and Centers currently lack permanent directors," they continued."The cumulative effect of grant terminations, workforce reductions, and restructuring of key research infrastructure raises serious questions about whether the United States will be prepared to respond to the next pandemic or biological threat."

Read the letter.

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