Congressman Jim Costa unveils legislation regarding regulation of biolabs

REEDLEY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Congressman Jim Costa is unveiling new legislation to regulate highly infectious diseases and high containment laboratories.

The "Preventing Illegal Laboratories and Protecting Public Health Act" is meant to address gaps in federal law.

H.R. 8065 comes after an illegal bio lab was found inside a warehouse in Reedley in December 2022.

Authorities say the lab had blood samples, nearly 1,000 mice and misbranded medical devices.

RELATED: City of Reedley, Fresno County to receive $260K for illegal lab cleanup

This public health act is meant to address the gaps in regulations for labs.

"This legislation will do the following, require sellers of highly infections agents to keep a logbook of all sales, and maintain those record for at least 5 years," said Costa.

The law would also require regular evaluations of high-containment laboratories and designate a single federal official to lead the overview.

That's something Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba says would have made a difference nearly a year ago when it was unclear which agency could help with the diseases found at the 850 I street building.

"That single federal source that is written into this legislation would have been able to guide us then, so this is a critical law to have on the books, so that we can deal with the labs that pop up, that may or may not look like Reedley," said Zieba.

Congressman Costa says the goal is to streamline communication between the federal government, states and local levels.

"By creating a public health and bio-security team, we'll serve as a liaison to state and local teams regarding laboratory, and biosafety and bio-security questions," said Costa.

Another key piece is a federal official conducting a feasibility study, to create a database of biolabs accessible to state and local officials.

RELATED: Fresno County cities gain access to infectious materials lab ordinance

"I think the result of that feasibility study will allow the united states to take a step back and how do we address these high containment labs, with safety levels 3 and 4," said Joe Prado, assistant director with the Fresno Co. Public Health Department.

Costa says they are also working on more legislation to train code enforcement officers like Harper to be able to identify highly infectious diseases.

"When I'm telling them, you don't have to go through what I went through, this is what you can do moving forward, and it really not only, helps the process move forward for a quicker response, but it guarantees officer safety," said Reedley Code Enforcement Officer Jesalyn Harper.

Costa hopes to get a hearing for the bill in the next couple of months.

He also pushed for federal investigations into the illegal lab, which led to a congressional investigation and the arrest of the lab owner, Jia Bei Zhu, also known as David Her, he is expected to be in court for a hearing Wednesday.

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