The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) is an American bipartisan legislative commission created by Congress in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (Sec. 1091). [1]
The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology is charged with conducting a thorough review of how advances in emerging biotechnology and related technologies will shape current and future activities of the U.S. Department of Defense, providing an interim report to the President of the United States and the Armed Services Committees within one year, and submitting a final unclassified report within two years to the President and the committees, including recommendations for action by Congress and the federal government. [2]
The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology was announced in March 2022 and will issue a final report to Congress by December 2024. [3]
The NSCEB is composed of 12 appointed commissioners:
The Commission submitted its first report to Congress in December 2023 [14] which included policy recommendations related to agricultural policy for potential inclusion in the Farm Bill.
In January 2024, the Commission released white papers regarding the convergence of artificial intelligence and biotechnology, or "AIxBio." [15]
The Commission's final report is due to Congress in December 2024.
The United States Intelligence Community (IC) is a group of separate United States government intelligence agencies and subordinate organizations that work both separately and collectively to conduct intelligence activities which support the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States. Member organizations of the IC include intelligence agencies, military intelligence, and civilian intelligence and analysis offices within federal executive departments.
The Committee on Armed Services is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation's military, including the Department of Defense, military research and development, nuclear energy, benefits for members of the military, the Selective Service System and other matters related to defense policy. The Armed Services Committee was created as a result of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 following the U.S. victory in the Second World War. The bill merged the responsibilities of the Committee on Naval Affairs and the Committee on Military Affairs.
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The Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations is a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. During the 112th Congress, it was known as the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, and before that as the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities. From the 113th–116th Congresses it was named the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities
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Ginkgo Bioworks is an American biotech company founded in 2008 by five scientists from MIT, headed by Jason Kelly. The company specializes in using genetic engineering to produce bacteria with industrial applications for other biotech companies, saving other companies the cost of reproducing the initial stages of design in synthetic biology. The self-proclaimed "Organism Company" was one of the world's largest privately held biotech companies, valued at $4.2 billion in 2019. It raised $290 million in September and $350 million in October of that year. Ginkgo Bioworks went public on the New York Stock Exchange via a SPAC merger on September 17, 2021.
Kathleen Anne Holland Hicks is an American government official who has served as the United States deputy secretary of defense since 2021. She is the first Senate-confirmed woman in this role and is the highest ranking woman currently serving in the United States Department of Defense. Hicks previously served as the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy during the Obama administration. By 2020 Hicks was an American academic and national security advisor working as a senior vice president and director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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