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SraNForD UNIeRsITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE April 8, 1977
Department of Genetics :

Honorable Edward M. Kennedy
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Kennedy,

I understand that the current version of the bill to regulate the safe
conduct of research on ‘recombinant DNA' has been amended in some respects from
the InterAgency recommendations. In particular, I am told that the provision

- for federal preemption over local law in this arena has been removed or dras-
tically curtailed.

From a practical standpoint, the renewal of the debate in every locality
means that the question of reasonable standards of safety remains indeterminate,
and that investigators will have no way of knowing what they must do to continue
their research in compliance with the law. We have also seen many circumstances
in which issues having nothing to do with the legitimate public concern for its
safety from infection with novel agents have been injected into these discussions.
These matters deserve careful scrutiny and debate, but as with other matters
of public controversy, there must be some time at which they are resolved and
we can all proceed with our proper business. ,

On the other hand, the police powers of states and communities are jealous-
ly valued prerogatives that, I agree, should not be overridden by the federal
authority without compelling cause. This is a general problem of state-federal
relationships. The present situation embraces some of the same considerations
as the unique federal interest in protecting national security, on the one hand,
and the local interest in the amenities of its own environment on the other.

May I suggest a compromise that I hope you cah accept as best meeting
both of these kinds of concern. The federal law should be preemptive with’
respect to hazards that might be argued to fall upon the nation at large; local

law could still bear on circumstances that are justified as placing a special
burden on the citizens of that jurisdiction.

Yours respectfully,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

cc: Dr. L. Horowitz/ Stanford

LT. J. P. KENNEDY, JR. LABORATORIES FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE, DEDICATED TO RESEARCH IN MENTAL RETARDATION
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY _ HEREDITY NEUROBIOLOGY DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE