Attachment III - page 1 
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH 
RECOMBINANT DNA ADVISORY COMMITTEE 
PROCEDURES 1 
Many aspects relating to procedures of the Recombinant DNA Advisory 
Committee (RAC) and to the manner in which the meetings are to be conducted 
are already addressed by existing laws and regulations 2 . Matters such 
as the procedures for the calling of the meeting and its notice, quorum 
requirements, agenda, public participation, minutes, the number of meetings, 
and the structure of sub-committees are mandated and either need no 
further consideration, or will be the subject of suggested minor modifications. 
I. SPEAKING TIME FOR MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC 
This issue is addressed in the HEW Committee Management Regulations 
(Title 45, CFR 11, in particular Section 11.5 (a) (3)]. 
Procedures : 
1) Priority for discussion of issues before the Committee must be given 
to RAC members, ORDA personnel, other NIH staff assigned to work with 
the RAC, invited consultants, and non-voting Committee members. During 
the course of discussion of RAC business, members of the public may 
be granted time for comments as time permits, and at the discretion of 
the Chairperson. 
2) As time permits, and at the discretion of the Chairperson, members 
of the public who wish to make a formal oral statement to the RAC may 
be permitted to do so. They must, however, have submitted a written 
request to ORDA at least two weeks in advance of the meeting stating 
the nature of their presentation and the amount of time required. The 
Federal Register announcing each RAC meeting should include a statement 
relative to such requirements and should also indicate the extent to 
which the public will be allowed to participate in the meeting. Time 
allocated to outside speakers and their positions on the agenda shall 
be determined by the Chairperson in consultation with ORDA. Tt> save 
time the Chair may have to limit or deny speaking time to some outside 
speakers representing similar views. The Chair should inform the 
Committee of any applicants who have been denied speaking time. 
3) Written statements submitted by members of the public relative to 
agenda items will be accepted by the Committee. Provided they are sub- 
mitted to ORDA three weeks prior to a RAC meeting, they will be 
duplicated and distributed to all members along with other agenda-related 
1 Adopted by the RAC at its September 6-7, 1979 meeting. 
2 Appended are copies of the RAC Charter and Title 45, CFR 11. 
[ 189 ] 
