ITHACA, N.Y.—Two years after its creation, the Reagan administration’s policy council for coordinating biotechnology regulation faces an uncertain future.
Presidential science adviser William Graham has decided to replace the Biotechnology Science Coordinating Committee (BSCC) with a group more directly under his control. Two weeks ago he told THE SCIENTIST that “BSCC has been suspended. it is no longer in operation.”
A clause in the BSCC charter required review and renewal by Graham if the committee were to opeate beyond October 31.
Graham said in mid-October that he was “looking at various ways to reorganize” the BSCC and wanted “to broaden its scope to encompass all of biology and life sciences, not just environmental release and biotechnology.” Graham said that Beverly Berger, who joined the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) April 1 as his assistant director for life sciences, would “play a major role in whatever evolves.”
However, Berger...
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