According to a December 21, 2006 press release, both outgoing House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and incoming Chairman Bart Gordon (D-NT) urged the Bush administration "to establish a research agenda with clear priorities to ensure a greater understanding of the potential environmental, health, and safety risks associated with nanotechnology."
I suspect that in 2007, the new Congress may well push a nanotechnology safety initiative. Nanotechnology safety issues are increasingly being publicly discussed, especially given Berkeley’s new regulations and NIOSH’s recent interest in occupational nanotechnology safety. Andrew Maynard’s proposal, discussed in Nature in connection with the National Nanotechnology Initiative, so far looks to be the most comprehensive public proposal — the press release expressly references it. We previously reported on Maynard’s proposal here and here.
