Chris Smith: “Mr. Speaker, today the House will vote to reauthorize the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act, which is the law that…”

“Mr. Speaker, today the House will vote to reauthorize the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act, which is the law that I, along with Artur Davis, sponsored back in 2005. That law created a new nationwide umbilical cord blood stem cell program, designed to collect, derive, type, and freeze cord blood units for transplantation into patients to mitigate and to even cure serious disease. Pursuant to the law, it also provided stem cells for research. The new cord blood program was combined in our 2005 law with an expanded bone marrow initiative, which was crafted over several years by our distinguished colleague Bill Young. Since the program was enacted in 2005, 12 cord blood banks have received contracts with the Health Resources and Services Administration. Earlier this year, HRSA reported that there were some 27,493 cord blood units collected and that another 13,000-plus units will be collected with the funds that have already been awarded. The reauthorization before us authorizes $23 million to be appropriated for fiscal year 2011 through fiscal year 2014 and $20 million for fiscal year 2015 for the national cord blood inventory, and it also authorizes $30 million to be appropriated for fiscal years 2011 through 2014 and $33 million for fiscal year 2015 for the bone marrow transplant program.”