By DONNA DE LA CRUZ
Associated Press Writer
December 19, 2005, 4:59 PM EST

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Chris Smith already ranks at the top of New Jersey's congressional delegation when it comes to seeing his bills passed into law, and the past week will surely bolster that standing.

The Mercer County Republican has managed in the past seven days to get two bills he wrote passed by the House and Senate, and President Bush is expected to sign both measures. One of them involves stem cell research; the other is aimed at preventing bioterrorism attacks and diseases. And Smith has two other bills pending votes in the Senate sometime this week.

Only 127 bills have been signed into law this year. With about 3,600 introduced in the House and Senate every year, getting one through from start to finish is a big deal.

Ross Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist, said Smith's ability to get bills passed is "an indication of someone who has good ideas and evidently has the political support to see them enacted."

Although Smith is known for his "right-to-life" stance, he is moderate on other social issues and respected by his colleagues, Baker added.

With the two measures, Smith leads the congressional delegation in bills passed this year by both the House and Senate. He estimates that since he was elected to Congress in 1980, he's gotten 40 to 50 bills that he authored signed into law.

Smith attributes his success to hard work.

"I work 15 hours a day and I really stick with something and I'm very tenacious," Smith said Monday, adding that he works on bills for years before they ever get passed. "For me, it's all about working on behalf of the people."

Awaiting Bush's signature is Smith's Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act, which provides $265 million for stem cell therapy, umbilical cord blood and bone marrow treatment. It also authorizes $79 million for the collection of cord blood stem cells. Such research is not surrounded by the same controversy as embryonic stem cell research.

"We will now be able to turn medical waste _ umbilical cords and placentas _ into medical miracles for huge numbers of very sick and terminally ill patients, who suffer from such maladies as leukemia and sickle cell anemia," Smith said.

The bill also reauthorizes the national bone marrow transplant system at $186 million over the next five years. The measure passed easily in both the House and Senate.

Smith also authored a bill that would allow for United States participation in the Regional Emerging Diseases Intervention Center in Singapore. The two countries established the REDI Center to promote regional health security.

The bill will allow the federal government to send Health and Human Services infectious disease experts to the REDI Center to provide training and research to workers there so they can respond to disease outbreaks and bioterrorism attacks. The first priority will be to teach center employees how to combat the avian flu, Smith said.

"The REDI Center will help to prevent the spread of pandemic flu and other epidemics at home and abroad," Smith added. "It will play a vital role in protecting American citizens from the threats of bio-terror attacks, avian flu and other deadly viruses."

Also in the works is a human trafficking bill Smith hopes to get passed by the Senate. The measure, passed by the House last week, would allow the federal government to prosecute American civilian contractors, federal employees and their dependents accused of human trafficking crimes overseas to be prosecuted in U.S. courts.

He said he also hopes his bill to provide millions of dollars to help torture victims abroad gets passed by the Senate.

Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press