U.S. Reps. Jim Costa (D-Fresno), David Valadao (R-Hanford), and Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) have reintroduced a bill strengthening federal oversight over pathogenic agents and laboratories that may work with dangerous diseases.

The Preventing Illegal Laboratories and Protecting Public Health Act of 2025 came just weeks before Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and the FBI arrested a man in connection to the operator of a Reedley biolab that contained several deadly pathogens and other biological materials.

More notably, the legislation was created after Reedley officials found their hands tied when trying to deal with the potential health threat left by Universal Meditech Inc. and one of its operators, Jia Bei Zhu. Zhu is in custody, awaiting federal charges for mislabeling medical tests.

Costa said he first introduced the bill after it took a push from him to get federal agencies to respond to the threat in Reedley. He said the bill strengthens tracking, improves oversight of those working with infectious diseases, and increases cooperation between local, state, and federal agencies.

“That’s why I first introduced this bill last year, and why I’m reintroducing it today with bipartisan support — to close gaps in the regulation of labs and prevent bad actors exploiting our public health system,” Costa said in a statement.

Valadao said the bill protects local communities and closes gaps in oversight.

“The Reedley lab was a dangerous national security failure, and it’s critical we put safeguards in place to ensure it never happens again,” Valadao said in a statement.

No WMDs? FBI Leaves Reedley on Their Own: Zieba

On Friday, when the FBI and Las Vegas Metro Police raided two homes connected to Zhu — managed by Ori Solomon, whom authorities arrested in response to the action — it came in stark contrast to the operation in 2023, said Nicole Zieba, city manager for the Reedley.

Federal agencies spent this past weekend gathering biological material found within two homes connected to Zhu where renters were also living, said Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the Las Vegas Metro in a news conference Monday.

FBI special agent Christopher Delzotto said the agency is taking “systemized, measured” steps to carefully catalog all of the contents at the Las Vegas homes.

Reedley officials did not get the careful, deliberate planning conducted in Vegas, Zieba said.

After Reedley code enforcement gained access to the building in 2023, Zieba called federal and state agencies but could not get cooperation until a call to Costa. Even after the California Department of Public Health and the FBI saw what was inside, no tests of biological materials were ever done.

Delzotto said authorities responded a week after getting intelligence about the biological materials stored at the garage.

‘Ebola’ in Reedley Warehouse Never Tested

Officials relied on labeling done by Zhu’s Universal Meditech to discover that diseases such as malaria, COVID-19, HIV, hepatitis, and others were being stored in the Reedley warehouse. The contents within a refrigerator with a label marked “ebola” — considered a select agent due to its 25% to 90% mortality rate — were never tested.

“The FBI set us free right away. What they told us was ‘no WMD, no weapons of mass destruction, this is going to be one of your cases, you guys go do it,'” Zieba said.

Federal and state authorities also left Reedley with the cost of destroying all the biological material, though they have not been given the OK to destroy “pallets and pallets” of pregnancy and COVID tests still stored at the warehouse.

Those tests and boxes of business records and paperwork are still in the warehouse.

Zhu has an active lawsuit against Reedley and Fresno County for destroying Universal Meditech property.

More Tools for Authorities Going After Domestic Biological Threats

When authorities arrested Zhu in 2023, they did not arrest him for possessing those diseases but rather for mislabeling and distributing medical test kits out of Meditech’s Fresno warehouse.

Additionally, authorities arrested Solomon on state charges of mishandling and disposing of hazardous materials.

Legislators say the laboratory legislation closes the gap in federal law.

It requires distributors of highly pathogenic agents to maintain federally viewable logbooks of all transfers for three years — something not previously required. It also mandates federal review of the number, location, and risks of high-containment labs.

The law creates a public health biosafety and biosecurity team as a single-point of contact for state, local, tribal, and territorial governments when suspicious labs are permitted.

A feasibility study of on creating a national database of those labs will also be conducted.

“The situation in Reedley made clear that the federal government must do more to prevent illegal labs from operating in our neighborhoods,” Kiley said in a statement. “This legislation creates the accountability and oversight needed to close dangerous gaps and protect the public.”

Legislators said in a news release the bill would keep foreign governments from creating similar biolabs.

Zieba said this kind of legislation is needed to protect communities.

“For years now, we have been trying to raise the alarm that we have a big problem in this country that it could be anywhere,” Zieba said. “Now you’ve got the small of the small, Reedley, and the big of the big, Vegas, with the same national security problem.”