Oversight Federal Activity

Mandatory Oversight Controls

Make compliance with certain oversight or reporting measures mandatory for all researchers, including those in both institutional and non-institutional settings, regardless of funding sources. Also consider revising the Department of Commerce’s export controls.

Recommendation

If the reviews called for in Recommendation 12 identify significant unmanaged security or safety concerns, the government should consider making compliance with certain oversight or reporting measures mandatory for all researchers, including those in both institutional and non-institutional settings, regardless of funding sources. It may also consider revising the Department of Commerce’s export controls. Any such change should be undertaken only after consultation with the scientific, academic, and research communities and relevant science and regulatory agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Export controls should not unduly restrain the free exchange of information and materials among members of the international scientific community.

Activities

Federal

Executive Office of the President
- On January 18, 2011, the Office of the President issued the Executive Order 13563, Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review, instructing each agency to develop and submit, within 120 days of the date of the order, a preliminary plan to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Under the plans, each agency will periodically review its existing significant regulations to determine whether any such regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed so as to make the agency’s regulatory program more effective or less burdensome in achieving the regulatory objectives.
- The Emerging Technologies Interagency Policy Coordination Committee developed principles, Principles for Regulation and Oversight of Emerging Technologies, pursuant to Executive Order 13563, to guide the development and implementation of policies for oversight of emerging technologies at agency level.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
- In September 2011, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Weapon of Mass Destruction Directorate (WMDD) listed a partnership with the synthetic biology community as one of its recent accomplishments to show its commitment to examining the safety and security concerns that such emerging technologies present, particularly as they relate to weapons of mass destruction.
Department of Commerce – No activities identified.
Department of Homeland Security – No activities identified.