Statement Before the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Review 
Committee on the NIH Proposed Revised Guidelines for Recombinant DNA Research 
By 
Dr. Robert M. Faust 
Plant Protection Institute 
Science and Education Administration 
United States Department of Agriculture 
Beltsville, Maryland 20705 
September 15, 1978 
In October of 1977 the Agricultural Research Policy Advisory Committee's 
(ARPAC) subcommittee on agricultural recombinant DNA research was established 
to concern itself with matters relating to guidelines for recombinant DNA 
research and any regulatory processes that might develop. It also was assigned 
the responsibility for developing recommendations and possible model procedures 
indicating how agriculturally related sciences and their sponsoring organizations 
should be moving forward to conduct recombinant DNA research, identify and share 
beneficial findings and foster safe application of such findings. The committee 
responded to the USDA's "Notice Regarding Research Involving Recombinant DNA 
Molecules", which purpose was to state USDA policy with respect to the adminis- 
tration and conduct of research involving recombinant DNA. We recommended that 
the Joint Council on Food and Agricultural Sciences develop standardized procedures 
for extramural and intramural recombinant DNA research to assure that the same 
guidelines are being followed and honored, that the "Notice Regarding Research 
Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules" developed by the USDA Recombinant DNA 
Committee be accepted, that wherever feasible, scientists working on recombinant 
DNA should be governed by a local biosafety committee, regardless of the source 
of funds, and that the conditions for performing recombinant DNA research as 
published in the Federal Register, Vol. 41, No. 131, dated July 7, 1976, be 
[ 306 ] 
