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>From Joan Samuelson in Washington DC: THE NIH REAUTHORIZATION BILL IS LIKELY TO GO TO A VOTE ON THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE TODAY! Presently the only obstacles to a unanimous passage are Senators Hatch and Faircloth. We need to work on them. Then, if it passes tonight (around 7 p.m. DC time) we have to work on Bliley in the house, so that he will agree to let it go to a vote in the house. Summary-- Points to make with Mr. Bliley WHAT IS NEEDED: We need Mr. Bliley to take up the NIH Reauthorization bill and send it to the House floor for a vote. BACKGROUND; The Mo Udall Parkinson's Research bill (HR 1462 and S 684) has a majority of both houses as cosponsors. This includes a majority of the House Commerce Committee. Unfortunately, Mr. Bliley has been unwilling to take the bill up and send it on to the full House for a vote. There appear to be two reasons 1. This legislation has not been a priority for Mr. Bliley or the sub-committee chair, Mike Bilirakis: and 2. both Bliley and Bilirakis would like to restore a ban on federal support for fetal tissue transplant research, and would do so in a Parkinson's bill, since a small amount of Parkinson's research involves such transplants. Any such ban would cause a partisan fight and destroy the bill because of the conflict over this issue. CURRENT STATUS: The Senate Labor Committee has unanimously voted to incorporate a streamline version of the Udall bill into the NIH reauthorization bill, and has sent it to the floor for a vote. Senators Kassebaum and Coats have struck a deal to keep fetal tissue or other controversial riders out of the NIH bill sot that it can get to a vote and passage quickly (probably by unanimous consent). Sen. Kassebaum has agreed to limit the NIH bill to one year (instead of the original three years in exchange for a Coats agreement not to raise fetal tissue or any other red flag-issue. We expect the NIH bill to reach the Senate floor in the next day or so. WHAT WE NEED FROM MR. BLILEY: We need Mr. Bliley to send the NIH bill as passed by the Senate to the House floor, preferably on the House suspension calendar. Sen. Kassebaum told us that she talked with Mr. Bliley last week and believes she has his agreement to do so, with no riders such as fetal tissue attached, in exchange for the one year limit on the NIH bill.