A Senate panel voted Wednesday to approve a biomedical security bill sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that would create an executive branch board to conduct oversight of life science research with pandemic-causing abilities, a measure inspired by the research conducted in Wuhan, China, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Risky Research Review Act advanced from the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in an 11-2 vote, with two Democrats voting against. The panel also approved the bill last Congress in an 8-1 vote, but it never received a vote on the Senate floor.

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The bill aims to create a more cohesive system with greater oversight for gain-of-function research, which, in layman’s terms, is any type of genetic manipulation of a pathogen that gives the disease either the capacity to infect a host in new ways or makes the disease more transmissible.

President Donald Trump issued a ban on all gain-of-function research in a May executive order, providing a technical definition of “dangerous gain-of-function research” as any research activity altering a pathogen or toxin that “could result in significant societal consequences.”

If passed by the full Senate, the bill would create the Life Sciences Research Security Board, with nine members appointed by the president. Paul has in the past said that the board would create “an extra layer of protection” before approving projects that could be risky.

Paul said during the panel’s markup of the bill that he believes having a permanent board reviewing “whether the research is good or bad would be better than an out-right ban.”

He also said his legislation will create a more permanent state of affairs that cannot be changed from administration to administration as easily as an executive action.

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“Any policy that’s going to be law has the effects for a much longer period of time than an administration,” Paul said.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), the panel’s ranking member and an original co-sponsor of the legislation, said he supported the bill and encouraged others on his side of the aisle to vote in favor.