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The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on July 14, 2026, entitled Biotechnology: Applications, Challenges, and Policy Options for Engineered Microbes for Waste Cleanup that assesses current and emerging genetically engineered (GE) microbe technologies for waste cleanup. The report examines: the status, benefits, and risks of GE microbes for waste cleanup; the challenges of developing or using GE microbes for waste cleanup; and options policymakers could consider to achieve various goals related to this biotechnology. GAO identified two policy goals related to this biotechnology — demonstrating safety and effectiveness and developing a market. GAO identified challenges hindering these goals, including:
- Insufficient testing infrastructure and standards. The current testing infrastructure and standards are insufficient to scale experimentation beyond the lab or to assess the safety and effectiveness of GE microbes.
- Regulatory catch-22. According to experts, when authorizing experimental release, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requests information that is difficult to obtain without experimental release. According to GAO, “EPA officials told GAO that information from published studies or lab data can suffice for permitting experimental release.”
- Unclear regulatory roles and responsibilities. According to GAO’s research, developers lack clarity about the regulatory process for engineered microbes. GAO notes that, for example, it is often not clear to developers which agency is responsible for regulating a given engineered microbe and why. EPA officials told GAO, however, that they get very few questions regarding jurisdiction.
- Public concerns. Developers may hesitate to invest in research and development of the technology if there is not sufficient public support. Public concerns include the potential for persistence in the environment, possible health effects, and discomfort with manipulating and patenting genetic material.
GAO developed ten options that policymakers could consider if they wish to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of or develop a market for GE microbes for waste cleanup. GAO states that it also considered the policy goal of pursuing alternatives to this biotechnology and developed three options policymakers could consider to achieve that goal.
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