[Memorandum Opinion and Order, Peter Lurie, plaintiff v. Department of the Army, defendant]

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Walter Reed Medical Center. According to Army medical
experts, phase 2 has shown that the vaccine should go to
phase 3 as soon as possible.
This research and other fine medical work at Walter
Reed are excellent examples of our military research facilities
which can and are helping to solve the problems that are
important and crucial to civilian society.
Mr. President, I urge adoption of the amendment on
behalf of myself and Senator Warner, and I also say former
Senator Russell Long has brought this matter to our attention.
* * s
Mr. President, in the case of this kind of research, time
literally means saving the lives of people now sick with this
deadly disease. The sooner we get these tests completed, the
better off so many people in our Nation will be.
138 Cong.Rec. S14156, S14159-60 (Sept. 18, 1992), reprinted at 1992 WL 229956
(Cong.Rec.).
The $20 million rider to the Defense authorization act set off a firestorm of debate
in the scientific research community because it circumvented the normal process for
federal funding of scientific and medical research. See Jon Cohen, Did Political Clout
Win Vaccine Trial for MicroGeneSys?, 258 Science, at 211 (Oct. 9, 1992). Bernadine
Healy, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), commented that it was
unprecedented for Congress to direct research to a specific experiment. Id And, as it
had before, this development in the testing of gp l60 received significant press coverage.
See, e.g., Lobbyists and Drug Tests, The Wash. Post, Oct. 28, 1992, at A24, reprinted at
1992 WL 2159626; Lawmakers'Approval of $20 Million for Aids Vaccine Tests Draws
Protest, The Courier-Journal, Oct. 26, 1992, reprinted at 1992 WL 7863278 ("several

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