I

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 2472

To promote the dissemination of biomedical information through modern

methods of science and technology and to prevent the duplication of

experiments on live animals, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JUNE 18, 1993

Mr. TORRICELLI (for himself, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mr. JACOBS, Mr. LIPINSKI,

Mr. DELLUMS, Mr. SHAYS, Mr. TOWNS, and Mr. GILMAN) introduced the

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and

Commerce

A BILL

To promote the dissemination of biomedical information

through modern methods of science and technology and

to prevent the duplication of experiments on live animals,

and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SHORT TITLE

4 SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Informa5 tion Dissemination and Research Accountability Act’’.

6 FINDINGS AND PURPOSE

7 SEC. 2. (a) The Congress finds that—
2

•HR 2472 IH

1 (1) the Federal Government must, for the pub2 lic good, bear the responsibility for making the re3 sults of biomedical research readily and economically

4 accessible in a form that maximizes its usefulness to

5 the research community, reviewers of research pro6 posals, and other individuals involved in the Federal

7 funding of research proposals;

8 (2) with the present inefficient system of stor9 age and dissemination of biomedical information,

10 most biomedical researchers and Federal agencies

11 cannot readily and economically obtain the full-text

12 results, current and archival, of research that has

13 been or is being performed;

14 (3) the inability of the research community to

15 obtain full-text results of such research promotes du16 plicative research;

17 (4) overwhelming numbers of laboratory ani18 mals are used in duplicative research because of the

19 research community’s inability to determine what re20 search has been performed;

21 (5) because of a lack of funding, the National

22 Library of Medicine of the Department of Health

23 and Human Services has not met the needs of the

24 biomedical research community;
3

•HR 2472 IH

1 (6) the failure of the Federal Government to

2 fund adequately the National Library of Medicine

3 has resulted in the Library’s inability to support ef4 fectively the creation of new information for use in

5 teaching and demonstrations, including audiovisual

6 aids and computer graphics;

7 (7) the failure of the Federal Government to

8 support adequately the storage and dissemination of

9 full-text biomedical information has been devastating

10 to the Nation’s medical libraries, forcing them to

11 terminate the acquisition of costly printed material;

12 (8) the amount of biomedical information is so

13 vast and is increasing at such a rate that traditional

14 methods of information storage and dissemination

15 are no longer efficient or effective;

16 (9) modern technology, including optical video17 discs, can be used for storage of whole libraries of

18 full-text biomedical information in a relatively small

19 space;

20 (10) these modern technologies are easily and

21 economically reproducible for distribution to all of

22 the Nation’s medical libraries for the immediate use

23 of the scientific community; and
4

•HR 2472 IH

1 (11) the benefits of developing a modern, effi2 cient, and economical full-text biomedical informa3 tion storage and dissemination system are—

4 (A) the advancement of scientific knowl5 edge;

6 (B) the savings to the taxpayers by pre7 venting duplicative research; and

8 (C) the sparing of millions of laboratory

9 animals from suffering, fear, and death in du10 plicative research.

11 (b) The purposes of this Act are to—

12 (1) establish a National Center for Research

13 Accountability;

14 (2) provide for a comprehensive, full-text lit15 erature search before the approval of Federal fund16 ing for any research proposal involving the use of

17 live animals;

18 (3) prevent duplicative experimentation or test19 ing on live animals;

20 (4) promote the advancement and use of mod21 ern technologies with respect to the storage and dis22 semination of biomedical information;

23 (5) provide, through grants, awards, and sti24 pends, for training of additional biomedical informa25 tion specialists in such modern technologies;
5

•HR 2472 IH

1 (6) make available at a reasonable cost the full2 text results of biomedical research, current and ar3 chival, to the Nation’s medical libraries for use by

4 the scientific community; and

5 (7) promote the creation and use of modern

6 technologies, including audiovisual aids and com7 puter graphics, for teaching and demonstrations.

8 THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ACCOUNTABILITY

9 SEC. 3. (a)(1) In order to create an independent cen10 ter to assist in eliminating duplication of effort in Federal

11 research proposals involving live animals, there is hereby

12 established a National Center for Research Accountability.

13 (2) Such Center shall be located at the National Li14 brary of Medicine and utilize the facilities of the Library

15 in accordance with subsection (d).

16 (b)(1) The President shall appoint twenty persons to

17 serve as members of the Center and carry out the respon18 sibilities of the Center as described in subsection (f). The

19 terms of such appointments shall be for a period of time

20 which the President determines is necessary to assure that

21 the members will serve long enough to provide adequate

22 continuity of effort within the Center but also provide for

23 periodic appointment of new persons as members.

24 (2) Such appointments shall be made without regard

25 to political affiliation and solely on the basis of dem-
6

•HR 2472 IH

1 onstrated ability to carry out the responsibilities of the

2 Center.

3 (3) A person appointed to the Center may be removed

4 only by the President.

5 (4) Such persons shall be experts in the biomedical

6 information sciences and, at the time of such appointment,

7 be employed by a Federal agency in a capacity which

8 qualifies them to make determinations with respect to

9 whether research proposals involving live animals are du10 plicative of other research efforts. In making such appoint11 ments, the President shall, to the extent practicable, ap12 point representatives from each Federal agency which

13 funds research on live animals.

14 (5) Such persons shall perform their duties at the

15 Center on a full-time basis and, while performing such du16 ties, shall be considered to be employees of the Federal

17 agencies which employed them at the time of their ap18 pointment to the Center.

19 (c)(1) The President shall appoint as the Director of

20 the Center a qualified biomedical information science ex21 pert who, at the time of such appointment, serves in an

22 administrative position as a Federal employee.

23 (2) Such person shall perform his or her duties on

24 a full-time basis, and while performing such duties, shall

25 be considered to be an employee of the Federal agency
7

•HR 2472 IH

1 which employed him or her at the time of the appointment

2 to the Center.

3 (3) Such appointment shall be made for a term estab4 lished by the President and shall be made without regard

5 to political affiliation and solely on the basis of dem6 onstrated ability to serve as a chief administrative officer.

7 (4) The Director may be removed only by the Presi8 dent.

9 (5) The Director may, to the extent approved by the

10 President and in appropriation Acts, appoint a clerical

11 staff, or to the extent approved by the President after con12 sultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Serv13 ices, the Director may utilize the clerical staff of the Na14 tional Library of Medicine.

15 (d) The President shall, after consultation with the

16 Secretary of Health and Human Services, provide for ade17 quate office space for the Center within the facilities of

18 the National Library of Medicine and, to the extent ap19 proved in appropriation Acts, provide for such equipment,

20 office supplies, and communications facilities and services

21 as may be necessary for the operation of the Center.

22 (e)(1) No Federal agency may carry out or fund any

23 research proposal involving live animals unless the pro24 posal is submitted to the Center in accordance with para25 graph (2).
8

•HR 2472 IH

1 (2) Following approval by a Federal agency of a re2 search proposal involving live animals, but prior to the

3 agency’s carrying out or making a commitment to award

4 funding for such proposal, such proposal shall be submit5 ted by the agency to the Center to ascertain whether such

6 proposal is essentially duplicative of other research com7 pleted or in process.

8 (f) If the members of the Center determine, in ac9 cordance with guidelines prescribed by the President, that

10 such proposal is essentially duplicative of other research

11 completed or in process, no Federal funding may be uti12 lized with respect to such project.

13 (g) To assist in carrying out its responsibilities for

14 conducting comprehensive full-text literature searches, as

15 it makes determinations under subsection (f), the Center

16 may, to the extent approved in appropriation Acts, award

17 contracts to private entities. The President shall establish

18 rules for the purpose of precluding any conflict of interest

19 with respect to the awarding of such contracts.

20 (h) The President may appoint persons to serve,

21 without compensation, as advisors to the members of the

22 Center.

23 (i) The Center shall transmit an annual report to the

24 President and to both Houses of the Congress summariz-
9

•HR 2472 IH

1 ing action it has taken in fulfilling its responsibilities

2 under this Act.

3 MODERNIZATION OF BIOMEDICAL INFORMATION STORAGE

4 AND DISSEMINATION BY THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF

5 MEDICINE

6 SEC. 4. (a) The National Library of Medicine shall,

7 to the extent of funds appropriated for such purposes—

8 (1) acquire, in full-text form, all biomedical in9 formation owned by each Federal agency or available

10 for use by Federal agencies, except information

11 which is already in the Library or which is classified

12 for reasons of national security;

13 (2) transcribe and store, in full-text form, all

14 such biomedical information acquired by the Library

15 after January 1, 1960;

16 (3) using modern technologies, make available,

17 upon request and at cost, to medical libraries all

18 full-text biomedical information in its collection;

19 (4) support, by grants and contracts, the cre20 ation of new information for teaching and dem21 onstrations, including audiovisual aids and computer

22 graphics technologies;

23 (5) make available, upon request and at cost,

24 such new teaching and demonstration information to

25 research and teaching institutions for the use of the

26 scientific community; and
10

•HR 2472 IH

1 (6) increase the number of persons trained in

2 modern methods of biomedical information storage

3 and dissemination technologies by making available

4 stipends, awards, and grants to persons engaged in

5 such training.

6 (b) For purposes of paragraphs (3) and (5) of sub7 section (a), the term ‘‘cost’’ shall mean an amount which

8 is established by the Secretary of Health and Human

9 Services in order to assure that the Federal Government

10 is reimbursed for expenses incurred in acquiring and mak11 ing available the information supplied pursuant to those

12 paragraphs.

13 (c) To assist in fulfilling its responsibilities, the Li14 brary may, to the extent approved in appropriation Acts,

15 award contracts to the private-sector data recording in16 dustry to improve—

17 (1) the development of modern information

18 technologies used for storage and dissemination of

19 full-text biomedical information; and

20 (2) the dissemination of full-text biomedical in21 formation to medical libraries for the use of the re22 search community.

23 (d) The Secretary of Health and Human Services

24 may appoint persons to serve, without compensation, as

25 advisers to the Library in carrying out this section.
11

•HR 2472 IH

1 (e) The Library shall transmit an annual report to

2 the Congress summarizing the progress it has made in

3 carrying out the provisions of this Act and providing a

4 statement and analysis of action to be taken by the Li5 brary during the year following such report.

6 DEFINITIONS

7 SEC. 5. For the purposes of this Act—

8 (1) the term ‘‘animal’’ means any nonhuman,

9 vertebrate animal, whether warm-blooded, or cold10 blooded;

11 (2) the term ‘‘agency’’ has the same meaning

12 given such term in section 551 of title 5, United

13 States Code;

14 (3) the term ‘‘Center’’ means the National Cen15 ter for Research Accountability established by sec16 tion 3(a);

17 (4) the term ‘‘Library’’ means the National Li18 brary of Medicine; and

19 (5) the term ‘‘research proposal’’ means any

20 proposal utilizing a scientific method of inquiry or

21 examination in seeking or establishing facts and

22 principles.

23 AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS

24 SEC. 6. There are authorized to be appropriated for

25 fiscal years beginning after September 30, 1993, such
12

•HR 2472 IH

1 sums as may be necessary for the purpose of carrying out

2 this Act.

Æ