The Scientist recently published a proposal for a new rule on consulting by National Institutes of Health scientists.[1] Under this rule, consulting would be "prohibited when it involves drug, device or product related to [the scientist's] research; permitted when company products are unrelated to [the scientist's] research." But this rule, proposed by the Executive Committee of the NIH Assembly of Scientists, is remarkably similar to the rules that were in existence during the 8-year period that ended in December 2003 with the Los Angeles Times' exposé of conflicts of interest at NIH.[2]