Hagerty Prevails in Effort to Ban Chinese Harvesting of Americans’ DNA

November 15, 2023

WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today praised the Senate’s overwhelming passage of his measure to ensure that the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes a provision to prevent Communist China and its biotech companies from harvesting the DNA of American citizens. The provision, supported by Hagerty in the Senate and authored by Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) in the House, would block taxpayer dollars from being used to purchase Chinese biotechnology equipment that would be used to analyze the genomic data of American citizens. The Hagerty motion approved by the Senate tonight instructs Congressional negotiators to adopt the Hagerty-Gallagher position for the final NDAA, virtually ensuring its passage into law.

“I applaud the Senate for overwhelmingly approving my motion to prevent the CCP from secretly collecting, storing, and analyzing the DNA of millions of Americans,” said Senator Hagerty. “I continue to urge all members of Congress to support inclusion of this provision to counter this CCP threat to American genomic data before it’s too late.”

###