HB 685 — Genetic sequencing; use of foreign genetic sequencing, etc.
VA 20261 session
Genetic sequencing; organ transplants; use of foreign genetic sequencing or genetic sequencer operational and research software; foreign storage of genetic sequencing data; health insurance coverage for certain foreign organ transplants; civil penalty. Prohibits medical care facilities from (i) using genetic sequencers or any operational and research software, as such terms are defined in the bill, produced in a country designated as a foreign adversary by the federal government and (ii) storing genetic sequencing data with a country designated as a foreign adversary by the federal government. The bill requires medical care facilities to certify their compliance with such provisions, under penalty of perjury, annually with the Commissioner of Health and subjects medical care facilities that violate such provisions to civil penalties. The bill also prohibits health insurance carriers from covering human organ transplants that occur in China or other designated foreign countries and subjects carriers that violate this provision to civil penalties.
Latest action: — In House
Sponsors (2)
- Eric R. Zehr (R, VA) — sponsor
- Wendell S. Walker (R, VA) — cosponsor
Action timeline (6)
- · house · H4020 —
- · house · H8500 —
- · house · H2401 —
- · house · H2412 —
- · house · H8500 —
- · house · H2482 —
Text versions (0)
No text versions on file yet — same ingest as the action timeline populates these. Each version has direct links to the XML / HTML / PDF at govinfo.gov.
Bill text (extracted)
Amendments
Congressional Research Service briefs (0)
CRS reports that cite this bill in their relatedMaterials — what Congress was reading on the topic. Click any report for its summary, formats, and bill-citation walk.
No CRS reports cite this bill yet.
Connected on the graph
1 typed relationship in the influence graph — 0 inbound, 1 outbound, grouped by type.
referred to committee (1)
| date | dir | entity | amount | role | source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | → | Health and Human Services | — | va-leg |
Who matters on this bill
Who matters
Members ranked by combined influence on this bill: role (sponsor 5 / cosponsor 1), capped speech count from the Congressional Record, and recorded-vote engagement.
| # | Member | Role | Speeches | Voted | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric R. Zehr (R, state_lower VA) | sponsor | 0 | — | 5 |
| 2 | Wendell S. Walker (R, state_lower VA) | cosponsor | 0 | — | 1 |
Stance (positions taken)
Predicted vote
Aggregated from: actual roll-call votes (when present) → sponsor → cosponsor → party median (predicts YES when ≥25% of the caucus sponsored/cosponsored). Each row labels its confidence tier so you can see why a position was predicted.
0 predicted yes (0%) · 543 predicted no (100%) · 0 unknown (0%)
By party: · R: 0 yes / 277 no · D: 0 yes / 263 no · I: 0 yes / 3 no
Timeline
Every typed-graph event involving this entity, newest first. Each row is one edge in the influence graph; the inline strip under the row shows the counterpart's own context (a bill's latest action, a hearing's chamber + date, a filing's form type + filed date, a clip's source + excerpt) so the timeline reads like a Wikipedia citation rail.
- 2026-05-24 · was referred to Health and Human Services · va-leg