On March 11, the Director of OSTP, the Administrator for OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), and the Chief Agricultural Negotiator for the United States Trade Representative released a memorandum to all federal agencies and departments on "Principles for Regulation and Oversight of Emerging Technologies."
The memo provides a set of overarching principles — including (among others) scientific integrity, publication, risk assessment/management — that all agencies and departments should abide by in order to ensure coordinated R&D, proper regulation, and balanced oversight of technologies such as nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and genetic engineering.