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The source of this article is the American Society of Hematology: http://tinyurl.com/4fjhh American Society of Hematology: Government Affairs Congressional, NIH, and Other Developments Concerning Stem Cell Research August 9, 2004, marks the third anniversary of the Bush administration policy limiting funding to those stem cell lines in existence prior to August 9, 2001. Despite the administration’s unwillingness to change its policy and statements by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) that the Senate will not take up new stem cell research legislation this year, recently there has been a flurry of developments concerning stem cell research in the House of Representatives, the Senate, the NIH, and in other venues. These include the following: The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2004 (HR 4682) is new legislation in the House of Representatives that would provide for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research on lines derived after August 9, 2001. ASH has endorsed (http://tinyurl.com/3qnc8) this bill and encourages members to contact Congress to gain additional co-sponsors. Please see the Action Alert (http://tinyurl.com/3n2xc) on the ASH Web site for more details. In the U.S. Senate, the Commerce Committee recently convened a hearing (http://tinyurl.com/3ubo4) to bring attention to adult stem cell research. Several senators also used it as an opportunity to talk about the inadequacies of the current federal embryonic stem cell research policy and their strong belief in the need to pursue both avenues of stem cell research – adult and embryonic. In addition, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is circulating a petition to send to the president urging expansion of stem cell research. More information can be found on her Web site. Meanwhile, in Senator Feinstein’s home state of California, there will be a ballot initiative to provide $3 billion to finance stem cell research that would not be subject to federal restrictions. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that two more lines were added to the NIH Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry (http://tinyurl.com/7xfqo). The total number of lines that are now available to federally-funded researchers is 21, far less then the 60+ lines envisioned by the Bush administration on August 9, 2001, when its current embryonic stem cell research policy took effect. Ron Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan, made a prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston that drew public attention to the issue. While he did not endorse Senator Kerry’s candidacy, he urged Americans to “cast a vote for embryonic stem cell research.” For more information about ASH’s position on stem cell research, please contact the ASH Department of Government Affairs at 202-776-0544. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn