Denver Post

A day after Bush's veto, a $152 billion spending bill with a stem-cell provision is on its way to the Senate.

By Anne C. Mulkern
Denver Post Staff Writer

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Washington - A spending bill with language expanding embryonic stem-cell research is on its way to the Senate floor, a day after President Bush vetoed Rep. Diana DeGette's stem-cell bill.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, on a 26-3 vote, approved the $152 billion legislation, which funds federal health, labor and education departments.

The stem-cell provision in the bill would allow federally funded research on stem-cell lines created before June 15, 2007.

President Bush by executive order has limited funding to research on lines created on or before Aug. 9, 2001.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said the new date would give scientists more than 400 new cell lines eligible for federally funded research, compared with the 20 now available.

One Republican on the committee, Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, said he would oppose the stem-cell language when the bill reaches the Senate floor.

The bill will go to the floor in July, Harkin said.

The White House said Bush's position on embryonic stem-cell research is clear. Bush vetoed the bill from DeGette, a Denver Democrat, that would have allowed research on all lines using cells created for in-vitro fertilization and scheduled to be discarded.

Bush will veto this spending bill because of this language, said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee.

"It's a way for certain Democrats to grandstand, but it will not change the policy," he said.

DeGette said the new language keeps pressure on Bush.

"It is important to keep this vital issue in the public eye, and the Senate's attention to this does just that," she said.

Making 400 embryonic stem cell lines available for federal funding "could make a tremendous difference," said Curt Freed, a University of Colorado Health Sciences Center researcher who uses embryonic stem cells as he tries to find treatments for Parkinson's disease.