OF CO. NSC. 
e -*v ,'c\ 
5.'\\ £ .C. \S3.5' 1 
« „ VOS *N.' V* V£ OlVO 
LAW OFFICES 
EDWARD LEE ROGERS 
SUITE T -200 
17 IS P STREET, N. WC 
W ASHKNGTON, E>- C. 20036 
®02) 3S~-I600 
January 28, 1987 
Director 
Office of Recombinant DNA Activities 
Euildina 31, Room. 3E10 
National Institutes of Health 
Betfcesda, Maryland 2C892 
Re: Comments on proposed Revisions tc Guidelines, 
51 Fee. Rec . 4565C (December 19, 1960^ 
These comments are submitted on behalf of the Foundation on 
Economic Trends and Jeremy Rifkin. Paragraph numbers herein 
coincide vith those of the Notice. 
I. The difficulty vith the proposed change is that, vhile 
it is intended to cover the situation where both NIE and another 
agency have jurisdiction to review the experiment, it fails tc 
suggest any mechanism for resolving the overlap in a prudential, 
ciscret icnary manner. Instead, the proposal simply calls for NIE 
to abdicate its role, regardless of whether NIE is satisfied that 
the review by the ether agency "serves the same purpose" as that 
which would be conducted by the RAC and NIE, is cf comparable 
quality, or that the other agency, rather than NIE, has the most 
appropriate expertise tc bring to bear or. the particular 
questions raised by the experiment. 
Instead cf the withdrawal of NIE review-decision authority 
as proposed, we suggest that after preliminary review by CRDA anc 
by the ether agency ^ or agencies) of the nature cf the proposed 
experiment, that they confer and decide — on the basis cf 
appropriate criteria such as expertise and capability — which 
agency is to conduct the review. It may be that through a 
memorandum cf agreement with other agencies, those cecisicns can 
be made in advance for certain categories cf experiments. It 
most instances, even those where the other agency must issue a 
permit, license, or approval, it will r.everthless be desirable 
that the RAC- NIE review— approval process be implemented, and that 
the other agency have the benefit of that review and decision. 
A vivid example cf the reed for NIE review and oversight is 
the situation involving the conduct of field tests for a 
P»1 
= ecc»~cirant I N.- =essartr. » our-e * * 
