# Plain Language Summary: Foreign Gain-of-Function Research Prevention Act of 2021

This bill prevents the U.S. government from spending taxpayer money on a specific type of dangerous biological research if it's being conducted by countries considered foreign adversaries. The research in question is called "gain-of-function research," which means scientists deliberately modify disease-causing germs to make them more contagious or more deadly. The bill specifically targets work on pathogens that could potentially cause pandemics—diseases that spread rapidly and widely among humans and cause serious illness or death.

The bill names four countries outright: China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. It also gives the Secretary of State power to add other countries to this list if they're determined to be foreign adversaries. The key restriction is straightforward: no federal funding—whether direct grants or indirect support through other organizations—can go toward this type of research in these countries. If an organization is caught using federal money for this prohibited research, it faces serious consequences: it loses all federal funding for five years.

The practical impact is that American research institutions, universities, and companies cannot use federal dollars (which come from taxpayers) to support gain-of-function research in adversarial nations. This is meant to prevent U.S. money from potentially funding research that could create more dangerous versions of disease-causing organisms abroad. For most Americans, this won't directly affect daily life, but it does reflect government concern about biosecurity and preventing dangerous pathogens from being developed outside U.S. oversight and safety protocols.

Foreign Gain-of-Function Research Prevention Act of 2021

Wenstrup, Brad R.

Foreign Gain-of-Function Research Prevention Act of 2021 This bill prohibits the use of federal funds to conduct or support gain-of-function research involving potential pandemic pathogens by China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, or other foreign adversaries. Gain-of-function research is any research that is anticipated to confer an attribute on a pathogen to enhance its pathogenicity or transmissibility in mammals. If the Department of State finds that an entity has used funds for prohibited research, the entity may not receive any federal funding for a period of five years.