tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525778292565554519.post1991369286199600418..comments2018-01-03T07:02:32.059-05:00Comments on Institutional Review Blog: Harvard Law School to Sponsor ANPRM ConferenceZachary M. Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07101709506166167477noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-525778292565554519.post-39734825840794806912011-11-05T18:28:06.357-04:002011-11-05T18:28:06.357-04:00The time is now to press for a proposed rule that ...The time is now to press for a proposed rule that eliminates totally and completely regulation of the social sciences and humanities. The Obama Administration is trying to show its bona fides in deregulation. Eliminating current censorship and torture by IRBs could save tens of millions of hours and billions of dollars a year in wasted "paperwork" and "information collection" costs that are currently illegally imposed in violation of the Paperwork Reduction Act and the First Amendment. The man in charge is Cass Sunstein, head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at the Office of Management and Budget, and a former University of Chicago professor. It is time for him to earn his pay. The woman in charge is Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary of HHS. We do NOT want to wait until next spring for a conference on the ANPRM, we want a proposed rule (NPRM) this winter, aimed at eliminating IRB review of riskless social and humanities research and at preventing IRBs from even reviewing whether such research is exempt or "excluded." Send Sunstein and Sibelius a message, and enlist thinktank and other external support. Remember that the current rule actually says that 99 percent of all social science is excluded, and doesn't even bother to discuss history and the humanities, which were not ever regarded as human experimentation that even needed to be excluded. The current rule does not give IRBs any authority to review exempt research, let alone to decide whether or not it is exempt. This is a problem that can easily be solved, if only the Administration will face it frontally. The time for academic discussion is over. The time for action is now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com