H.R.4473 - BIRD Health Act of 2025
H.R.4473 was introduced on July 16, 2025 by Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX). It is currently pending before the House Committee on Energy & Commerce.
Related legislation:
Bill Summary: H.R.4473 would direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to enter a cooperative agreement with Israel to collaborate on the development and delivery of healthcare products including medical devices and diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and biological products, genomics and personalized medicine, telemedicine, artificial intelligence for healthcare applications, infectious disease prevention, vaccine development, and epidemiological research. It would authorize $70 million in U.S. funding over 7 years for joint research projects between U.S. and Israeli institutions, and directs HHS to "work towards developing a framework for sharing health data... with the Ministry of Health of Israel." Relevant projects would be evaluated under a series of criteria including the strength of the U.S.-Israel partnership demonstrated in the project. The Bill requires an annual report to Congress on program implementation and progress.
Context: The tech-enabled biomedical field offers incredible promise to humanity, and also incredible dangers. For instance, the convergence of AI and genomics poses serious biological threats by enabling the design of novel or enhanced pathogens. AI can analyze genomic data to create virulent, transmissible, or treatment-resistant agents, lowering barriers to engineer bioweapons in small labs.
Because of this, all countries with whom the U.S. has existing Congressionally authorized programs have ratified the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the international treaty that prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons. Israel, however, is one of only 10 countries around the world that has neither signed nor ratified the BWC, and this program, if authorized, would be the U.S.’ first with a country that has refused to foreswear offensive biological weapons, and is widely suspected to have an active offensive biological weapons program. States Parties to the BWC (such as the United States) are required to ensure that any biomedical collaboration with a non-State party (such as Israel) do not in any way contribute to biological weapons programs, but this Bill does not make any allowance for such a process.
Moreover, when it comes to Israel’s healthcare sector more broadly, Israeli medical professionals have been implicated in potential International Humanitarian Law (IHL) violations in Palestinian detention centers, particularly through their involvement or silence regarding detainee mistreatment. Reports highlight inadequate medical care, neglect, and complicity in torture at facilities like Sde Teiman, where Palestinian detainees have faced severe conditions, including lack of treatment for injuries sustained during detention. Some doctors, also IDF reservists, have failed to uphold medical impartiality, potentially breaching IHL obligations to provide humane treatment and protect detainees’ health. The Israeli Medical Association’s lack of condemnation further raises concerns about accountability for these violations.
American Values Analysis: The American renunciation of biological and toxin weaponry in 1971 marked the first time that a major power voluntarily abandoned an entire category of armament. This action opened the door to the rapid negotiation of the BWC and showed how the United States could learn from its mistakes during the Vietnam war with its use of agent Orange. The decision to renounce our biological and toxin weaponry was in line with the American value of moral leadership. H.R. 4473 is a step back in that moral leadership. The state of Israel is one of ten states to not be a signatory or party to the BWC and has not publicly stated that it is not developing nor manufacturing offensive biological weaponry. Deepening cooperation and access should be granted to states whose actions are aligned with American values.
American Interest Analysis: While as a general matter international collaboration in the healthcare space contributes to the global good, the risks associated with such collaboration are significant, both in terms of science and reputational harm. Contributing in any way to a biomedical sector that is adjacent to, if not directly implicated in, violations of IHL and that lacks a commitment to biological weapons nonproliferation is not consonant with U.S. national security.
A New Policy’s Recommendation: Oppose
A New Policy opposes H.R.4473 because despite its apparent focus on medically beneficial scientific advancement, it exposes sensitive dual-use technologies, and potentially personally sensitive and national security health data to a foreign actor whose track record involves violations of international humanitarian law, and which has not signed the most basic of international instruments prohibiting offensive biological weapons development.
For more information please contact: Josh Paul, (202) 770-0055, info@anewpolicy.org
