USDA CREATES BIOTECHNOLOGY UNIT

USDA CREATES BIOTECHNOLOGY UNIT    The U.S. Department of Transportation has created a unit within the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to focus on the USDA's role in regulating and facilitating biotechnology.
   The new unit, Biotechnology Regulatory Services, will focus on regulation, risk assessments and permitting. BRS will work with foreign governments to help create compatible biotechnology standards, and will follow industrial trends and forecast scientific advancement to better regulate the biotechnology industry, USDA said.
   APHIS will reassign 25 staff members to the new unit and spend about $4 million on the effort.
   'USDA has turned a corner in the regulation of biotechnology, said Bill Hawks, Agriculture Under Secretary. 'This new unit will ensure USDA is at the forefront in developing appropriate regulatory policies to address today's biotechnology issues and challenges.'
   The reorganization also helps the agency address recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences in a February report, to enhance APHIS's biotechnology regulatory process to make it more effective.
   APHIS's biotechnology programs had been divided between APHIS's Plant Protection and Quarantine and Veterinary Services programs.