H.R. 7936 — Bioindustrial Scale-Up for Supply Chains and Energy Resiliency Act of 2026

This section expresses the sense of Congress that (1) the primary barrier to commercializing U.S. biotechnology innovations is demonstrating product and process scalability to provide investors a path to financial returns; (2) the U.S. faces challenges securing biomanufacturing infrastructure due to insufficient capacity—driven by researchers generating new products faster than manufacturing expansion and the high cost and time required to build facilities—and because current facilities are generally optimized for one product type and incompatible with others; and (3) establishing technology maturation facilities is critical to position the U.S. as a leader in bioindustrial innovation.

This section revises the definitions in the Department of Energy's bioenergy research, development, demonstration, and commercial application program (i.e., a program supporting biopower, biofuels, bioproducts, integrated biorefineries, feedstocks, and economic analysis) by—(1) redesignating the definitions of "biomass" and "lignocellulosic feedstock" as paragraphs (5) and (7), respectively; (2) adding new definitions for "biobased product," "bioindustrial manufacturing" (i.e., use of living organisms, cells, tissues, enzymes, or cell-free systems to produce nonpharmaceutical materials and products), "biointermediate," "biomanufacturing," "biotechnology," "open access," "phytobiome," "technology maturation," and "waste stream"; and (3) establishing requirements for not fewer than two precommercial bioindustrial technology maturation facilities (as user facilities available to governmental and nongovernmental users) by September 30, 2030, with the first facility planned and built within two years. (Thus, the facilities derisk biotechnology-based products relevant to the Department's mission through pilot and demonstration projects, scale-up, tool development, input challenges, workforce training, and digital infrastructure, considering industry needs, geographic diversity, workforce development, and complementarity with existing infrastructure such as National Laboratories.)