Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 2507 - National Institutes of Health Reauthorization Act

(Senate)
(Kennedy (D) MA and 4 others)

The Administration is strongly committed to the biomedical research of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Administration urges Congress to enact a simple extension of appropriation authorizations for NIH. H.R. 2507, as reported by the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, is unacceptable. If it were presented to the President in its current form, his senior advisers would recommend a veto.

H.R. 2507 is objectionable because it would permit federally funded transplantation research involving human subjects to use fetal tissue from induced abortions. Current policy allows federally funded transplantation research to use fetal tissue from spontaneous abortions or tissue derived from the treatment for an ectopic pregnancy. H.R. 2507 would broaden current policy by allowing the use of tissue from induced abortions as well. This has the potential of providing an incentive for abortions, and it could also create a demand cycle, dependent upon maintaining the legality of induced abortions.

The Administration understands that Senator Hatch will offer a fetal tissue transplantation research substitute amendment, which would create a physician and hospital fetal tissue registry and a fetal tissue bank. This amendment addresses the Administration's objections to the bill's provisions concerning fetal tissue research. Accordingly, the Administration strongly supports Senator Hatch's amendment and urges its enactment.

Other major objectionable provisions of H.R. 2507 would:

—   Allow unwarranted and unwise intrusions into the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The bill is also too directive in its effort to expand certain research programs. It would impose activities and a number of advisory committees on NIH that are costly, unnecessary, and duplicate existing efforts in some cases.

—   Dictate to the Secretary of Health and Human Services the membership of the "ethics board" used to make decisions regarding the implications of the research conducted by NTH. The Administration believes that this mandate is unconstitutional as it violates Article II, section 2 of the Constitution.

The Administration understands a number of amendments will be offered, including amendments by Senators Mikulski and Hatfield.

The Administration strongly opposes Senator Mikulski's amendment, which would incorporate the provisions of S. 2285, the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act. Senator Mikulski's amendment has not been subject to any congressional hearings and would potentially confer special benefits to a single geographic location by permitting the purchase of up to 300 acres of land for the "establishment of a satellite campus in Maryland."

Senator Mikulski's amendment is unacceptable because it intrudes broadly on Executive branch authority to ensure that policies affecting NIH are comparable with other Federal agencies. The amendment would mandate, among other things, a restrictive artificial time-frame (90 days) in which the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the General Services Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Office of Management and Budget must respond to requests from NIH or else "such request's] shall be considered to be approved."

Other objectionable provisions contained in Senator Mikulski's amendment would authorize (1) an unnecessary revamping of NIH's personnel system that is redundant with recent reforms in the Federal Employee Pay Comparability Act and (2) the renovation or replacement of the Clinical Center, including the authority to accept a transfer of land from the Secretary of the Navy.

The Administration is still reviewing an amendment by Senator Hatfield that would impose restrictions with respect to patenting of certain human tissue, fluid, cell, gene, gene sequence, or animal cell. Prior to Senate floor consideration, the Departments of Commerce and Health and Human Services will transmit letters stating the Administration's views on this amendment.