Stem Cell Research Bill Clears Senate

In a milestone vote on July 18, the Senate passed legislation to expand the current federal embryonic stem cell research policy. The 63-to-37 vote sets up what President George W. Bush has threatened will be the first presidential veto of his six years in office.

The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R. 810) would expand current policy by allowing federally funded research to include stem cell lines created ethically from excess in vitro fertilization embryos scheduled to be discarded. The House passed this bill in 2005 (C&EN, May 30, 2005, page 12).

"It is our responsibility as legislators???both in funding and in oversight???to determine the proper role of our federal government in this evolving new research, and to build ethical safeguards," said Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Frist, like several other Republicans, broke rank with the Administration on this issue.

The Administration has said that the President will veto this bill, maintaining that the current federal policy, announced by Bush in 2001, is sufficient to allow research to move forward with only the 21 cell lines derived before the policy was in place. Researchers, however, have argued for the inclusion of more cell lines in federally funded research, because the lines allowed for study have become contaminated by mouse feeder cells and cannot be used in humans.

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) is a strong supporter of the President's policy and opposed H.R. 810. "I believe that it is possible to make scientific progress toward treating disease while respecting the objections of those, like myself, who do not believe that more federal dollars should go to support embryo-destructive research," he said. A presidential veto may come as early as July 19.