House Bills - 109th Congress

H.R. 5578—The Protection for Participants in Research Act of 2006

On June 9, 2006, Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO) introduced H.R. 5578, the Protection for Participants in Research Act of 2006. Provisions would (1) require uniform applicability of the Common Rule with the vulnerable-populations rules in all human subject research, (2) authorize the Secretary of HHS to permit the Federal agency involved in the conduct and support of human subjects research to establish additional protections if the Secretary determines there would be no conflict with protections provided in the bill, (3) provide that principal investigators may not involve an individual in research without obtaining the informed consent of that individual, (4) require an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, for the purposes of the Common Rule and the vulnerable-populations rules, prior to the conduct of human subjects research, and (5) require investigators to notify the respective IRB of any significant financial conflicts of interest. The bill would codify the establishment of the Office for Human Subjects Protections and authorize grants for the development of a model education program to develop best practices in institutional management of human subjects research. H.R. 5578 has one cosponsor and was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.