[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 103 (Monday, June 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4516-S4517]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          UNITED STATES INNOVATION AND COMPETITION ACT OF 2021

  Mr. WICKER. Madam President, on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, the U.S. 
Senate passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021. This 
comprehensive legislation includes the Endless Frontier Act as Division 
B. The Endless Frontier Act will establish a new Directorate of 
Technology and Innovation at the National Science Foundation, NSF, 
focused on research and development in 10 key technology focus areas, 
which include ``biotechnology, medical technology, genomics, and 
synthetic biology.''
  Although the NSF funds minimal research involving human embryos, it 
is absolutely critical for the proposed new Directorate of Technology 
and Innovation and the NSF as an institution to protect human life and 
to prohibit research that would create or destroy human embryos. First 
enacted in 1996, the Dickey-Wicker amendment incorporated into annual 
appropriations bills ensures that such protections apply to research 
funded by the National Institutes of Health, NIH.
  The NSF reports that it applies all NIH guidelines, including the 
Dickey-Wicker amendment, to its research. The Chief of Government 
Affairs at NSF, Mr. Robert Moller, confirmed this in an email to my 
staff dated May 16, 2021:

       NSF supports very little human embryonic stem cell 
     research. NSF incorporates the NIH Guidelines for Human Stem 
     Cell Research through our award Terms and Conditions, which 
     govern, among other things, the allowable uses for NSF funds. 
     Those NIH guidelines clearly address the Dickey Wicker

[[Page S4517]]

     amendment in Section V. As NSF incorporates this guidance, it 
     also incorporates the Dickey-Wicker amendment and its 
     restrictions.

  It is clear from NSF's response and a review of the research terms 
and conditions that are binding on awardees that NIH guidelines, 
including Dickey-Wickery protections, apply to NSF-funded research. 
Since nothing in the Endless Frontier Act or the U.S. Innovation and 
Competition Act modifies these legal protections, it is therefore the 
clear intent of the Senate that the protections for human life afforded 
by the Dickey-Wicker amendment continue to apply to the NSF.

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