7 
Now, next to Mr. Beaty is Ms. Rosemary Menard, who is a laboratory 
technician and a member of an institutional biohazards committee at the 
University of Washington in Seattle. 
Are there any that I did not introduce? 
In addition to the members of the Committee who are seated about the 
table, I would like to introduce very briefly members of the NIH staff. 
Dr. Bernard Talbot, Dr. DeWitt Stetten, Dr. Charles McCarthy, Dr. Joseph 
Perpich, and Dr. William Gartland. 
I should like to remind you that this meeting is being recorded through 
out its proceedings. 
We certainly welcome and appreciate your willingness, members of the 
Committee, to share with us the responsibilities inherent in an exercise 
like this. Apart from the expanded Advisory Committee, special arrange- 
ments for this meeting have also included the inviting of twelve witnesses 
to represent industrial research, academic research, and labor and environ- 
mental groups in scrutiny of the proposed revisions. In addition to these 
invited witnesses, a number of others have requested an opportunity to 
contribute their views on one or more aspects of the issues under discussion 
Perhaps the latter are, in the purest sense, the public witnesses, whether 
they are scientists or represent other callings. 
Present today are also members of two other groups that have had impor- 
tant roles in the development of Federal policy in this area. The Federal 
Interagency Committee on Recombinant DNA Research represents Federal depart- 
ments and agencies that either support and conduct such research or have 
regulatory authorities that touch upon this activity. That committee also 
serves as a forum for discussion of recombinant DNA issues and for coordi- 
nation of Federal activities. 
I have also invited members of another Federal advisory board to which 
our society really owes a large debt of gratitude, and this group of experts 
is the Recombinant DNA Molecule Program Advisory Committee, or simply the 
Recombinant Advisory Committee, or RAC; and they have borne the burdens of 
interpretation of the Guidelines, and have labored for many months to pre- 
pare the proposed revisions that are the subject of this meeting. 
Finally, we welcome several congressional staff members from committees 
that hold legislative and oversight hearings concerning recombinant DNA, and 
we also welcome members of the press. 
A brief summary of relevant background might be in order at this point. 
NIH issued its Guidelines for Recombinant DNA Research in June 1976, and 
they were published in the Federal Register on July 7, 1976, for public 
comment. A draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Guidelines was re- 
leased in September of 1976, and the final Environmental Impact Statement 
was released in November of this year. 
[ 211 ] 
