One of the more unusual amendments is one offered by New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith to conduct a review about whether the US military experimented with making ticks into biological weapons, CBS News reported.

The amendment, passed by the House of Representatives last week, would require the Pentagon inspector general to examine “whether the Department of Defense experimented with ticks and other insects regarding its use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975.”

Smith said he was inspired to add the amendment to the annual defense bill by “a number of books and articles suggesting that significant research had been done at U.S. government facilities (…) to turn ticks and other insects into bioweapons.”