Joe Barton: “Mr. Speaker, let me in summary again commend the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette), the gentleman from Michigan…”

“Mr. Speaker, let me in summary again commend the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) and all the folks on the minority side that worked with us on this. I want to thank again the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Nethercutt) for his work. This bill is going to pass on suspension, which shows how noncontroversial and bipartisan this particular issue is. But this is a bill that is worthy of considerable celebration because if you have a family member that has diabetes and you have to watch and sometimes help them get their insulin injections, the ability to get an islet cell transplant revolutionizes their life. It is just amazing. Our problem is that there just are not enough organ donations to make it possible to do this for many people. Hopefully, this legislation will make it possible to get more donations and, over time, perhaps even do the research that can result in being able to replicate the islet cells so that every diabetic in the country that wants one of these transplants can get that. So I cannot say in stronger terms how happy I am to bring this to the floor, and I would urge unanimous adoption of the bill.”