Nancy Pelosi: “this is an important day for us in Congress. I myself am deeply indebted to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette)…”

“this is an important day for us in Congress. I myself am deeply indebted to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette) and the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle) for their great leadership and courage in bringing this legislation to the floor. I thank the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle) and the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette). This is important legislation because every family in America, every family in America is just one phone call away, one diagnosis, one accident away from needing the benefits of stem cell research. We want all of the research to proceed, the umbilical cord research that we talked about this morning, and adult stem cell research. That is all very important. But we must have the embryonic stem cell research if we are truly going to have science have the potential it has to cure diseases. I served for many years, probably 10, on the Labor-HHS subcommittee which funds the National Institutes of Health. So I have studied this issue over the years. What we are doing here today is recognizing the miraculous power to cure that exists at the National Institutes of Health and in other institutes of excellence in research throughout our country. We are recognizing the miraculous, almost Biblical power that science has to cure. And what we have said, what we are saying here today is nothing that should not be considered of value.…”