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Letter from Idelle Datlof, Executive Director of SCAN Message List January 12, 2007Volume 07, Issue 01-02 As many of you already know, the House of Representatives voted today on "The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act" (the same bill that President Bush vetoed last summer). This bill would reverse the strict limits of the President's Executive Order of 8/9/01 which restricted funding to a set of stem cell lines already in existence at the time. This policy has severely hampered researchers, as most of those stem cell lines are contaminated and not safe for use. The Senate vote has not yet been scheduled. Last year, there were 63 votes in favor of the stem cell bill in the Senate, and last fall's elections appeared to add three more pro-cure votes in the Senate, so the bill's supporters are on the verge of the 67 Senators necessary to override the President's anticipated veto. . The House vote today is a good news/ bad news event. It passed by a majority, by 253 votes to 174, eighteen votes stronger than last summer's tally. The bad news: should the bill be vetoed again by the President (which is all but certain) it is 36 -37 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto. You can think about this in two ways: first, that there is only one man standing in the way of the majority will of the citizens of this country (yes, the President) or, that there are only 37 minds (out of 174) that we need to change to have this pass. I think we may have a better chance to influence 23% of the naysayers, than to affect the President's longstanding opposition. We in SCAN will be analyzing the results and launching a campaign to communicate to these legislators why thousands of their constituents: patients, scientists, friends, and families - are asking them to change their vote. We intend to focus our efforts on those representatives who would seem to be the most willing to listen to our arguments and consider changing their positions. We will of course, be asking you to help: to send letters, to meet with members of Congress and their staff, to speak at press conferences and other media events, to write letters-to-the-editors of your local newspaper, and to enlist friends and family to do the same. If we don't do this for ourselves now, who will? Thank you, Idelle Datlof Executive Director ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn