Analysis: Stem Cell Bill to Bush Again

By TODD ZWILLICH

Congress sent a bill to the White House Thursday calling for expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, though only after President Bush had already promised to again veto the measure.

The bill marked the second time in less than a year that Congress has challenged strict federal funding limits set by the president in August 2001. Supporters want to lift the limits so that the National Institutes of Health can fund research on stem cells derived from frozen embryos, which in most cases sit in freezers as artifacts of fertility treatments.

The bill passed the House Thursday, 247 to 176. Thirty-seven Republicans voted to send the bill on to the president.

House and Senate Democratic leaders made a rare show of the accomplishment, holding a bill signing ceremony before television cameras before transmitting the bill to the White House.

Democrats and Republicans did the right thing by passing this bill again, and it is not too late for the president to do the right thing as well, said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the majority leader.

In addition to an expansion of funding for research on embryonic cells, the bill includes an expansion of federal research into alternative methods of stem cell production that do not destroy embryos. The latter part was added in the Senate in April as a way to attract more Republican support.

Thursday’s House vote was the second Democrats have held since taking control of Congress in January. Republican leaders, who oppose expanding the research, accused Democrats of trying to coax a veto from the president on a bill that enjoys broad support from the public.

This is not about expanding research. They understand the president has vetoed this in the past, he’ll do it again. This is Washington being Washington, trying to score political points, Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the House GOP leader, told reporters.

In a statement issued from the G-8 summit in Germany, Bush said the bill would upset a delicate ethical balance struck by his 2001 policy.

If this bill were to become law, American taxpayers would for the first time in our history be compelled to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos. Crossing that line would be a grave mistake. For that reason, I will veto the bill passed today, the statement read.

The Constitution gives the president 10 days to veto the measure. Reid said that shortly thereafter the Senate will attempt to override the veto.

Supporters are within a single vote of securing the 66 they would need for the override, assuming all 100 senators were to vote. Democrats said Thursday they were confident they could convince one colleague to switch. But the outcome is still far from clear because of fluctuations in the Senate’s voting membership.

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., who supports the research, is still absent while recovering from a brain hemorrhage. Meanwhile, Wyoming has a vacant seat due to the death of Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., earlier this week.

Reid said he would wait until Wyoming’s governor appoints a successor for Thomas before proceeding with the vote, even though moving sooner could pose an advantage in the paper-thin margin for the override.

I want everyone here to know that I’m not going to take advantage of Craig Thomas’s death, Reid told reporters.

The vote will likely amount to little more than interesting political theater. The House is still approximately 40 votes short of a two-thirds majority required for an override.