Entire Transcript in Adobe Acrobat Format - National Reference ...

276
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
The weaknesses are that, you know, we clearly
need White House and/or -- probably and as well as or --
real sponsorship. If the White House is not interested in
protecting this office and if a committee of Congress or
certain members of the committee do not regard it as an
important function that they want to protect and ensure its
independence, a small office like this will not have
independence. The press alone cannot ensure the
independence of an office like this.
Furthermore, absent some current human subjects
scandal it may be difficult to create a new agency in our
present smaller government era.
(Slide.)
Having said this I also want to suggest for our
discussion that there is certain things we can focus on and
other things that we can exclude. The central objective I
hope we could agree on would be to create a body with
authority and ability to get the job done. Although OPRR
is the major human subjects protection body today, its
performance need not be the focus of any report. Indeed, I
would suggest it would be inappropriate to focus in on
OPRR. The concern is with structural problems, some of
which affect OPRR's operations, some effect its location,
and likewise the location of comparable offices in either