Robin Carnahan: “last year this House passed the landmark stem cell bill, H.R. 810. We know that President Bush has already authorized…”

“last year this House passed the landmark stem cell bill, H.R. 810. We know that President Bush has already authorized research, even though it is arbitrary and artificially restricted, when he made his executive order allowing research on existing stem cell lines before 9 p.m. August 9, 2001, and prohibiting them after that date. We know that in 2001 it was believed 78 stem cell lines existed. But now we know there are only 22 that are viable, and they have been contaminated with mouse stem cells. We know that we are at a historic crossroad in Washington this week. We are either days away from this Congress passing this stem cell bill, or we are going to see delays for years. We know that this issue has united Americans into action across party lines. It includes over 80 Nobel Prize scientists. It counts hundreds of disease-fighting groups advocating for 110 million Americans who are afflicted with a genetic sentence to disability or death. We know President Bush has signed over 1,000 bills into law. This is not the time to start with the Presidential roadblock of a veto. ____________________”