Political Quotes

“I am pleased to join Senator Hatch, Senator Reed, Senator Burr, Senator Ensign and Senator Franken in introducing the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2010, a bill that will benefit some of the most gravely ill patients--those in need of a blood stem cell transplant. The bill we are introducing today reauthorizes the vital work being done for patients as a result of the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005. I first joined Senator Hatch more than seven years ago on legislation to create a national network of cord blood banks and a cord blood registry. Five years ago, when the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee took up cord blood legislation, Senator Hatch and I, working with many of our colleagues on and off the committee, expanded the scope of our legislation to include a reauthorization of the national bone marrow program and updated the cord blood provisions to be consistent with the recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine's report, 'Cord Blood: Establishing a National Hematopoietic Stem Cell Bank Program.' In the end, that legislation, the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005, passed the senate unanimously. Since then we have learned a lot of about adult stem cell transplantation. There are currently twelve public cord blood banks across the U.S. and cord blood cells account for 22 percent of all transplants as of 2009.”