ALBERT

Keywords: Advisory Committees ; *DNA, Recombinant ; Federal Government ; *Government Regulation ; Jurisprudence ; National Institutes of Health (U.S.) ; United States ; University of California experiment, already approved by the National Institutes ; of Health's Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, which would have involved the ; first deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified bacteria. ; Agreeing with social activist Jeremy Rifkin's charge that NIH had failed to ; comply with the National Environmental Policy Act when it approved the ; experiment, Sirica strongly suggested that he would also rule in Rifkin's favor ; on a suit to block all similar federally funded experiments until NIH has ; conducted an exhaustive evaluation of their potential environmental impact. ; Sirica's decision, however, left the NIH Recombinant Advisory Committee free to ; approve privately-funded experiments, which are not covered by the same ; environmental laws.