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ncems, community to respond to requests from the Board in a manner consistent with the protection of intelligence sources and methods. Enforcement • : The enforcement provisions are extreme and may raise significant legal and privacy concerns. Those provisions mandate a suite of harsh penalties for any violations of certain provisions of the statute, including technical or unintentional violations; they allow for no flexibility in determining the severity of punishment; they provide the aggrieved party with no process; and they mandate public identification of aggrieved individuals. These provisions could broadly disincentivize individualsmay dissuade scientists from working in life sciencespursuing any research and funding agencies, which could sendthat might be potentially considered high-risk. • Authorities: Agencies have raised concerns about how the legislation would conflict with and impede their existing authorities, including those related to grantmaking. For example, DOD has noted the legislation would curtail DOD's flexibility and weaken DOD's Title 10 authorities to fund research outsidethat is in the best interest of this country and compromise progress on public health, safety, and national security. In several places the legislation raises privacy concerns by requiring sharing of information that is normally protected under the Privacy Act. In addition, USAID has noted that ambiguity in the definition of federal funding could imply that contributions to other bodies such as CEPI are required to go through this process, which could limit U.S. Government's ability to effectively work with such organizations. • Given We recommend that enforcement provisions be focused on willful violationsthe above concerns, as drafted, this legislation has the potential to negatively impact innovation and delay the development of lifesaving technologies. While the Administration does not support this legislation, we remain committed to working with the Committee on biosafety and significantly reduced or adjusted.biosecurity. •