William Tauzin: “New subsection (k) permits the President to waive, in writing, only the consent portion of the conditions of…”

“New subsection (k) permits the President to waive, in writing, only the consent portion of the conditions of authorization set forth in section 564(e) with respect to armed services personnel, and only to the extent that complying with the requirement is not feasible, is contrary to the best interests of the personnel, or is not in the interest of national security. It is not my intent that the President may ever waive pursuant to subsection (k) the other conditions. They are that the individual to whom the product is to be administered is informed, one, that the Secretary has authorized the emergency use of a product, and, two, about the significant known and potential benefits and risks of the use of the product. The committee intends, absent extraordinary circumstances, that such information be provided to individuals prior to receiving the unapproved product. After the gentleman raised these issues with us, we took a closer look at the language, and I acknowledge that there is a crossreference in new section 564(k)(2) that could be confusing.”