Brandon Williams: “in fact, the Federal Government has for the past 20 years vigorously promoted the protection of people in its research.…”

“in fact, the Federal Government has for the past 20 years vigorously promoted the protection of people in its research. An institutional review board has been created a couple of decades ago for the very purpose of scrutinizing these surveys, and it has established procedures for protecting people when we are doing a study. That can include written consent from the parents. It includes follow-up phone calls. It includes notification of parents about a study. It includes a variety of other methods. We ought not to go off thinking that there has been no thought about this whatsoever in the Congress until this moment because that is demonstrably not true. The Federal Government actively pursues trying to protect people. Let me read into the record the following groups that are opposed to the amendment, as I am, that is now on the floor: The Society of Behavioral Medicine, the National AIDS Fund, the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research, the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, the Consortium of Social Science Associations, the American Sociological Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association, the American Anthropological Association and, finally, the AIDS Action Council.”