Summary

THE SENATE The Senate meets for 1 hour of morning business followed by the start of up to 20 hours of debate on 2 stem cell bills. 13:00:08.6 if we answer the second moral question, if we can do this -- and we can through multiple ways -- why would we destroy the first embryo? we don't have to destroy the first embryo. 13:00:21.4 i think we ought to be considering the moral questions. but also the facts that will come about as a result of this fascination and hope for a cure. i've had mothers of juvenile diabetics in my office, family 13:00:39.4 members of alzheimer's disease, a parkinson patient plead with me. weapon i explained what's on the horizon, when i explain to them the potentials, all of a sudden the hope that has no substance to it yet, whatever, doesn't 13:00:56.0 have near the meaning of all the other things that are going on that do have meaning. so, we need to refocus on the real research, the real potential and answer this best, most important moral question: do we steal life from the 13:01:12.1 innocent to potentially give life to the maimed, injured, or diseased? or do we, in fact, do it in a way that never steals life and accomplishes the same goal? that's the real question before the senate. 13:01:26.7 s. 30 does that. s 5 doesn't. that's the division. one says, to heck with the ethics. to heck with the problems associated with it. 13:01:35.8 to heck with the rejection. to heck with the antirejection drugs. to heck with the idea we cannot clone ourselves, we want to go this way. s. 30 allows all the accomplishments, all the potential without violating the 13:01:50.9 first ethical clause. that's the question america needs to ask itself on this debate. we can give to all those that are desirous of all the needed benefits of cure and treatment. we can do it in an ethically responsible manner that will 13:02:08.3 send us the right road for this country. not the wrong road. i yield back the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. isakson: how much time remains? the presiding officer: five 13:02:24.7 minutes remain under the control of the republican leader. mr. isakson: i yield to senator coleman with one unanimous consent request that senator mcconnell be added as a cosponsor to s. 30. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. coleman: mr. president, i want it briefly touched upon 13:02:41.3 another aspect that we have not touched on. i thank my colleague from oklahoma who articulated the basic issue. can we move science forward without crossing a moral line. can we avoid the great division in america. 13:02:56.9 scientific research should be something as a society we embrace. s. 30 gives us the opportunity to do that. to do that. i hope my colleagues from all perspectives decide they will support s. 30. another aspect of s. 30 that's 13:03:12.9 important, a provision in there that calls for the secretary of health and human services to look into setting up a national stem cell bank. mr. president, there are three banks of stem cells this this country: wisconsin has the 20, 13:03:29.4 21 cells the president originally authorized. in minnesota there is a cord blood cell bank. there is a bone mayor oh bank. 13:03:43.6 what we hope to do is, based on research that has recently come to light, wade forest has done some of it, the use of amniotic and pla sental stem cells that can be grown in large 13:03:59.9 quantities. they do not produce tumors which occur in other stem cells. the scientists have noted that the specialized cells from amniotic cells may have -- this is potential -- there is the potential to have the elasticness and pluripotency we 13:04:19.9 see in embryonic stem cells and high growth potential resembling human embryonic stem cells. the hope is to put together a tissue sampling of 100,000 tissues to give the ability to cut across the diversity that we 13:04:34.7 do not have today with the research going on. again, if s. 5 is passed, it will be vetoed. and the science will not be moved forward. if s. 30 is passed, with the provisions providing for stem cell research that provides for 13:04:50.3 pluripotent research, provides for dead embryo research, which gives the same kind of stem cells from any other embryonic stem cells the new techniques out there. in addition, s. 30 contains a provision for moving forward with the national amniotic pla 13:05:10.0 sental stem cell bank which is the hope of the authors of this bill. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. 13:05:24.4 the presiding officer: under the previous order, the next 60 minutes are under the control of the majority leader or his designee. the senator from california. mrs. feinstein: mr. president, it's my understanding i have 20 minutes, is that correct? 13:05:39.6 the presiding officer: there are 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader. the chair is not aware of any designation within that 60 minutes. mrs. feinstein: thank you very much. mr. president, i rise in support of the stem cell enhancement act 13:05:54.7 of 2007. that is known as s. 5. it is, really, the only bill of the two that will allow scientists -- scientists to fully pursue the promise of stem cell research. 13:06:08.2 i thank senators harkin and specter, kennedy and hatch, who have really been in the leadership of this issue for the past several congresses. i also want to point out, in the case of the distinguished senator from utah, he is very 13:06:28.1 pro life. i have listened to him over these many years. i have listened to the real wisdom he has espoused on this 13:06:37.6 issue. i hope more people will pay attention to him because i think he is right on with respect to this issue. mr. president, on august 9th, 2001, 6 year ago, president bush 13:06:53.2 limited federal research funding to 78 stem cell lines already in existence. now, nearly six years have passed. in that time, two things have happened: first, most of the 78 stem cell lines are no longer 13:07:10.1 available for scientific work. many lines developed abnormalities and mutations as they aged. only 21 lines are available today. these lines are all contaminated with mouse cells and, therefore, 13:07:28.7 are useless for research in humans. they do not have the diverse gene makeup necessary to find cures that benefit all americans. researchers cannot use them to examine rare and deadly genetic diseases. 13:07:45.3 this was, in fact, the president's policy. it is now clearly established that that policy does not work. and yet, the president will not relent and federal research on 13:08:02.3 stem cells cannot go forward. secondly, public support for stem cell research -- full-blown stem cell research -- has grown. 61% of americans, spending to a poll in january of this year, 13:08:19.1 support embryonic stem cell research. so, this is also a bipartisan issue. 54% of republicans in an abc news poll, also support embryonic stem cell research. 13:08:34.2 the majority of the american public supports this bill. we know that the current policy is handcuffing our scientists. it is not allowing this research to move forward. so, the solution is obvious: we should pass this bill. 13:08:52.4 i think the time has come for the president to come to this realization. it is my hope that he will see he has been mistaken. the bill we are debating today offers a compromise. this bill will not destroy 13:09:09.7 inquire embryo that would not otherwise be destroyed or discarded. it will allow promising research to move forward. it would end the impasse. it would take off the handcuffs. president bush had the 13:09:25.3 opportunity to take a step forward nine months ago when the house and senate sent him the bill on which this bill is based. he made it the first and, so far, only veto of his presidency. my colleagues and i made a 13:09:41.2 commitment that we will raise this issue again and again, as long as it takes. today, we are fulfilling that promise. we know this bill will one day become law. if not this year, then next year. 13:09:56.3 if not next year, then the following year. the majority of the american people, the majority of the scientific community, other nations, many of our states, have embraced the promise of stem cell research. the president can stand in the 13:10:13.5 way of such an overwhelming consensus for only so long. with every passing week, the inevitability of this legislation grows clearer. just since the president's veto, officials from his own 13:10:29.0 administration have acknowledged the shortcomings of the current policy. more research has demonstrated the unique promise of pluripotent multipurpose stem cells. states and private institutions are forging ahead without 13:10:44.7 federal support. finally, and importantly, more americans are waiting for cures and treatments for catastrophic diseases. this is a very large lobby, indeed. so, today, we have another opportunity to move hope 13:11:02.2 forward. the do bills before us today present a very stark choice: only one bill, s. 5, the stem cell research enhancement act, embraces all forms of stem cell research. 13:11:16.7 this legislation provides a simple and straightforward way to provide american scientists and researchers with immediate access to the most promising stem cell lines. it states that embryos, to be 13:11:34.0 discards from inhave it troa fertilization clinics, may be used in federally funded stem cell research no matter when they were created. while opponents have suggested that this bill will lead us down 13:11:47.5 a slippery slope the parameters created by the bill are numerous and, in fact, strict. let me give some examples. the embryos must be left over, following further tilt 13:12:01.1 treatment. the people donating the embryosment of provide written consents. the donors may not be compensated for their donation. and, finally, it must be clear that the embryos would otherwise be discarded. this legislation will not allow 13:12:18.4 federal funding to be used to destroy embryos. with restrictions in place, over 400,000 embryos could become available while ensuring that researchers meet the highest of 13:12:33.8 ethical standards. let us be clear. we are talking about embryos that will be destroyed whether or not this bill becomes law. it's an indisputable fact and everyone would agree these embryos have no future. 13:12:53.0 when president bush adopted his ill-fated policy in 2001 he allowed lines already in existence to be used for federally funded research because "the life or death 13:13:09.0 decision" had already been made. the same is true here. in terms of the bake ideology of the president's earlier policy, this bill is not different than 13:13:24.3 the earlier policy. that is because the life or death decision has already been made with respect to these particular embryos. >> these will never be implanted. 13:13:38.9 they will never be adopted. they will never be used. this bill has not been held up because it's flawed. there's nothing wrong with this bill. this bill has been held up because of ideology. not policy. 13:13:55.5 there is a clear scientific consensus on this issue. embryonic stem cell research has been endorsed by 525 organizations and 80 n price laureates -- nobel prize 13:14:14.0 laureates. that represents the entire panoply of american health corps -- the young and the old. the american associations of retired persons which we know as aarp. the society of pediatric research, the american geriatric society representing a wide 13:14:31.7 range of medical experts. the american medical association supports this bill. the american academy of nursing supports this bill. they are from varying regions in the country. the university of california system, the university of 13:14:48.3 kansas. the university of arizona. the university of chicago. wisconsin alumni research foundation. they represent patients struggling with a wide variety of afflictions. the christopher reeve foundation, the lung cancer 13:15:04.8 alliance, the arthritis association, the als association, the juvenile diabetes research foundation. they represent a variety of religious faiths, including the episcopal church, the national 13:15:20.2 council of jewish women.n these groups represent a variety of patients, medical disciplines and religious faiths. they are from all over this country and they all support expanding stem cell research 13:15:40.8 this consensus now even includes bush administration officials. just last month, the n.i.h. director, dr. alijah zaruni, testified this -- quote -- "from 13:15:53.3 my standpoint as n.i.h. director, it is in the best interests of our scientists, our science, and our country that we find ways and the nation finds a way to go full speed across adult and embryonic stem cells 13:16:12.9 equally." that's a pretty unambiguous statement from the man that heads the institute of health. the united states senate and the president should listen to the scientists who best understand 13:16:26.1 this issue and give them access to the stem cell lines that 13:16:32.0 successful research demands. jennifer mccormack of stanford university's center for biomedical ethics has said -- and i quote -- "the united states is falling behind in the international race to make 13:16:47.2 fundamental discoveries in related fields." it is time to address and reverse this sentiment. in a letter to president bush, nobel laureates called discoveries made thus far by stem cell researchers a 13:17:05.2 significant mile shown in medical research. they go on to say that federal support for the enormous creativity of the united states biomedical community is essential to translate this discovery into novel therapies for a range of serious and 13:17:22.9 currently intractable diseases. and they are not alone. paul burg of stanford, george daly of harford, lawrence goldstein of the university of california at san diego recognized the promise and the 13:17:38.6 need for embryonic stem cell research. these esteemed researchers have said, "we want to make it very clear the most successful demonstrated method for creating the most versatile type of stem cells capable of becoming many 13:17:55.2 types of mature human cells is to derive them from human embryos." this is the science. now, you can quote a scientist here or a scientist there that will differ with that, but the 13:18:13.1 bulk of people in this field worldwide believe just as this statement reflects. as lucian depreoa of columbia university said, "this is 13:18:29.5 important and exciting work chght it's time that we use the -- work. it's time that we use the wisdom of these respected scientists and embrace the promise of biomedical research using embryonic stem cells." 13:18:47.3 scientists have lenders more about stem cells, how they work, how they may one day may be used for cures since we last considered this issue, i guess some ten months ago. in just this past august, scientists from the university of edinborough used embryonic stem cells from an african frog 13:19:07.1 to identify a protein that's critical to the development of liver cells and insulin producing beta cells. now, this could lead to a better understanding of diabetes and liver disease as well as new treatments. 13:19:21.4 then the next month or two, in october, scientists at novacell, a san diego biotech company, announced the development of a process to turn human embryonic stem cells into pancreatic cells that produce insulin. 13:19:38.3 this could be another significant step toward using stem cells to treat diabetes. in september last, researchers using human embryonic stem cells to slow vision loss in rats suffering from a genetic eye 13:19:56.1 disease that is similar to macular degeneration in humans. macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in people aged 55 and over in the world. it affects more than 55 million 13:20:13.2 americans. now, this research means that stem cells could one day be used to restore vision in many of these patients. just think of that. 15 million people who were 13:20:28.3 surely going to go blind, that blindness might be stopped. in march, a team at the burnham institute in la hoya used embryonic stem cells in mice to treat rare degenerative disorder 13:20:44.1 called sanhoff's disease. this condition, which is similar tesack's disease, treated mice with stem cells. the mice treated with stem cells enjoyed a 70% longer life span and the onset of their symptoms 13:21:02.0 was delayed. the stem cells migrated throughout the brains of the mice and they replaced damaged nerve cells. no one ever thought that could be done before. this suggests that embryonic 13:21:18.1 stem cells may effectively treat this disease as well as other genetic neurological conditions, including tejsack's. 13:21:30.9 so all of this work is now beginning. scientists will now work to translate these promising advances into cures for humans. and such a feat will almost certainly require access to viable lines of human stem cells. 13:21:43.5 unless the president's policy is overturned, these lines will not be available. and without access to additional stem cell lines, the cures and treatments will never move from mice to humans. 13:22:04.7 many states, frustrated with federal gridlock and the loss of their best scientific minds, are moving forward. 13:22:15.0 i'm particularly proud of my state, california. in 2004, california voters by a whopping margin approved proposition 71 and created the california institute of 13:22:30.5 regenerative medicine. that instituted is spending $3 billion over 10 years supporting promising research conducted in california. this work will be done with careful ethical oversight. it also bans human reproductive 13:22:46.7 cloning, something we can all agree is immoral and unethical. over $158 million in research grants have now been approved, making california the largest source of funding for embryonic 13:23:02.7 stem cell research in america. promising projects include creating liver cells for transplantation at the university of california at davis, developing cellular models of parkinson's disease 13:23:18.0 and lou gehrig's disease, a.l.s., at the saulk institute. this will give a better understanding of how these diseases work and yield possible treatments. and work at stanford to more effectively isolate heart and 13:23:33.8 blood cells from embryonic stem cells. these are only some of the more than 100 labs in california now working. now, you might say, all right, why not let the private sector and the state address this 13:23:49.6 problem? why do we need federal research? and i want to concentrate a few moments on that. the actions of california and the actions of other private and public institutions do not substitute for federal funding 13:24:07.4 and a standardized national policy. much of this debate focuses on stem cell lines themselves, but scientists need much more to succeed. they need expensive equipment and lab space in which to work 13:24:23.8 and collaborate. and there's the rub. for scientists working on embryonic stem cells, this means taking great care not to intermingle their work on approved stem cell lines with 13:24:37.8 those that are not approved. if federal funds, for example, built a lab or bought a freezer, a petri dish or a test tube, these resources cannot be used on research involving lines not 13:24:55.5 included in the president's policy. now, as i said, there are no lines left for the president's policy. therefore, they can't be used. and this has created a logistical nightmare. the duplication and careful 13:25:10.9 record keeping required is an enormous disadvantage faced by united states stem cell scientists. many have gone to extreme lengths to ensure they follow these regulations. the stakes are high. 13:25:26.3 any mistake could result in the loss of federal grants for a researcher's entire lab. let me give you a few examples. the university of minnesota researcher, mary furpo, buys one brand of pens for her lab that 13:25:43.6 receives government money and another brand of pens for use in her privately funded lab. this helps her ensure that a ballpoint pen purchased with federal grant money is not used to record results in her lab 13:26:00.7 that works with stem cell lines not covered by the president's policy. ucla is using a complex accounting system to allocate federal and private dollars in careful proportion to the amount 13:26:14.9 of time a researcher spends working on either approved or unapproved stem cell lines. a stem cell researcher, jeani e 13:26:31.1 boham, designed labels for all her equipment. stem cells in a green circle denote equipment that can be used with all stem cell lines, while equipment bought with federal funds is marked with a 13:26:39.9 red circle with a slash through it. at the university of california in san francisco, biologist susan fisher worked for two years to cultivate stem cell lines in a privately funded makeshift lab. 13:26:58.1 unfortunately, the power, the electricity in her lab failed. she couldn't move her lines into the industrial strength freezers in the other lab because they were federally funded. the stem cell lines on which she 13:27:12.1 had worked for two years melted and were gone. so two years of work were out the window because of this ridiculous situation. money that could otherwise be devoted to research is instead 13:27:29.4 used to build labs and purchase duplicate equipment. and the cost is significant. scientists at the whitehead institute for biomedical research in cambridge, massachusetts, didn't want to fall behind international stem 13:27:45.9 cell leaders so they established a second lab. they had to buy a $52,000 microscope, two incubators, which cost $7,500, a $6,500 centrifuge. 13:28:00.0 they already owned this equipment, they had the equipment but they couldn't use it because that equipment was published with federal dollars. to me, this makes no sense. i don't think we can afford this kind of wasteful duplication 13:28:17.2 with what are very precious research dollars. our scientists should be focused on investigating disease not worried about who pays for their pens or their test tubes. so bottom line, we need a reasonable federal policy that 13:28:34.1 includes funding for viable stem cell lines. now, i don't need to tell you about the hope, the famous 13:28:48.2 faces, the average people that are behind this legislation. it's nearly 70% of the population. i don't have to tell you about michael j. fox, who showed the nation the true face of parkinson's disease. i don't have to tell you about first lady nancy reagan, who has spoken out in support of this 13:29:05.4 and other legislation. or christopher reeve, who lived his life refusing to accept that his spinal cord injury would never be healed. or dana reeve, who stood by her husband and then tragically lost her own battle with cancer. 13:29:23.2 and just as important are the millions of americans who may not have a famous face but put everything they have in us in the hope that we will do the right thing. and the right thing is pretty simple. 13:29:36.4 it's to give them a chance to live. to live. that's what we're talking about. i don't think there's any other piece of legislation that more involves the right to life than this piece of legislation. 13:29:53.4 these are people that are going to die. they live with catastrophic, often terminal diseases. they suffer immeasurably. and suddenly there might well one day be a cure or their 13:30:11.7 disease might be put in remission. and the kind of research might be done that can mend a broken spinal cord. how can we not support this? how can we look at the fact. 13:30:28.9 what the president said, life or death is not involved in the embryo that's used, and that's what this legislation is. these are embryos that have no chance at life. all we ask is they be put to 13:30:42.1 work to protect human life. it seems to me that's not too much.p@p really i really hope that this bill not only will pass by a substantial 13:30:58.3 margin, but some way, somehow the 67 votes we need in this house to overturn a presidential veto will be present. i think the american people demand no less. thank you. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the 13:31:13.1 senator from california, i thank her for her eloquent statement and for her many years of working on this issue and her support for this and so many 13:31:22.8 issues dealing with the health of the american people. i just thank senator feinstein for being a stalwart in trying to break down the barriers that we have to embryonic stem cell research. i thank her for that, and i yield ten minutes to my good friend, the senator from delaware. 13:31:37.2 the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: thank you. i thank senator harkin for yielding his time to me. mr. president, good afternoon. we made some truly amazing strides in medical research with the creation of new medicine and mapping the human genome, but i think we'll all agree that a 13:31:55.1 good deal can be done, and more should be done. we know that stem cells hold promise, and today we have an opportunity, not today but tomorrow, to pass critical legislation that enables us to take some of those next steps. in finding treatments and cures 13:32:10.5 for diseases like parkinson's, like juvenile diabetes, like heart stkaoerbgs and even cancer -- heart disease, and even cancer. like, i suspect, every member of this body, i have in my own family personal experiences and reasons for supporting stem cell 13:32:27.3 research. my mother passed away about a year and a half ago, almost two years ago now, and she had in the last decade or so of her life been stricken by alzheimer's disease, by dementia. 13:32:40.5 her mother had lived and died with the same disease. her grandmother had lived and died with the same disease. her sister may be showing symptoms, early symptoms of the same disease. my mother's father was a butcher, worked five, six days a 13:33:00.7 week until he was 81 years old as a butcher in a little mom and pop super market in beckley, west virginia. but his hand would shake like this. you'd go into the butcher shop, hands shaking like this, you would wonder how many fingers is 13:33:14.9 he going to lose today trying to cut the meat. he never lost one. i remember watching as parkinson's took its toll on him as it has in others of our colleagues in the house of representatives, where senator harkin and i served. lane evans and mo udall and others we lived with, thought 13:33:31.0 the world of, still think the world of, to see what happens to them because of those diseases. i just lost my uncle in huntington, west virginia, last year to a form of cancer which is almost, always deathly. 13:33:49.4 and pancreatic cancer. those are just a couple of people in my own life, people very close to me in my family who we have either lost or seen a serious degradation in the equal of their lives. 13:34:08.8 someday i'd like to be able to say to my sons who are 17 and 18 you'll never have to worry about alzheimer's disease because of the research, the kind of work done in this legislation. you'll never have to worry about having parkinson's disease or pancreatic cancer because we 13:34:24.0 figured out how to deal with those as well. but today's more about just curing diseases. it's also about keeping america's research centers competitive and relevant. the united states has always been a key leader in the prevention and treatment of 13:34:41.7 illnesses. we developed vaccines, we developed antibiotics that have saved literally millions of lives. still do. we made tremendous advances in the field of biotechnology and pharmaceutical research as well. now we have the opportunity to make a national commitment to 13:34:56.9 expand the frontiers of medical research. stem cell research is, i think, a key part of doing that. and i know a lot of us agree. a nation that is able to take stem cell research to the next step and use it to truly 13:35:12.7 understand how our d.n.a. works and then to use that information to help find treatments and cure diseases will be in the driver's seat of medical research worldwide for some time to come. my friend and fellow delawarean, 13:35:30.0 congressman mike castle, has led the way to expand stem cell research. last year congressman castle introduced legislation that would allow the national institutes of health to support embryonic stem cell research. congress passed this bill, thanks to the leadership, in no 13:35:44.3 small part, by senator harkin and others here in this body. legislation, as we know, was vetoed by our president. and i just must respectfully disagree with the president's policy on stem cell research. on this front, i just think he's wrong. 13:35:59.1 this year several of my colleagues, including my friend, senator harkin, have introduced legislation very similar to the castle bill that we passed last year here. s. 5, stem cell research enhancement act of 2007, would advance stem cell research by expanding the number of stem cell lines that are eligible for 13:36:17.5 federal funding. it would also strengthen the ethical rules that govern stem 13:36:22.8 cell research, a concern that i know is on many people's mind, including my own. under the administration's current policy, the number of stem cell lines available for federally funded research, has continued to shrink. there are now only 21 cell lines 13:36:37.0 available, i'm told. 21. what's more, many of the current lines are contaminated or reach the end of their usefulness. a gentleman named dr. he will lie kwras zerhouni, recently 13:36:52.8 testified before a senate panel and made a similar claim that these 21 cell lines that national institutes of health has will not be sufficient for the research that they need to do at n.i.h. s. 5 would allow new lines to be 13:37:08.0 derived from excess in vitro fertilization embryos that would otherwise be discarded. to me, the choice seems clear. rather than allowing these embryos to be discarded, to be destroyed, we can use them to 13:37:23.4 further lifesaving research, that may save the lives of our loved ones, our spouses, our brothers, our sisters, our parents, our children, our nieces and our nephews. s. 5 would allow new lines to be derived from excess in vitro 13:37:39.7 fertilization embryos that are going to be discarded. i know some people are concerned about that, and they have an ethical dilemma that they face. i would just say to people who have those concerns, and who may have those deeply held beliefs, 13:37:55.2 does it make sense to you that these embryos that have been created in fertility clinics are just going to be destroyed? they are going to be destroyed at really the discretion of the, whoever is the person who donated the egg and sperm. does it make more sense to allow 13:38:13.1 those fertilized eggs to be destroyed or does it make more sense to allow them to be, at the discretion of the husband, the wife for those, that embryo to be used to help preserve life, to enhance life to, improve life? 13:38:29.1 these new stem cell lines will dramatically expand our ability to study and find treatments for a wide range of illnesses. and the benefits will come not only from having more lines, but from having better lines. by expanding our research policy, we can create stem cell 13:38:46.4 lines that help us study specific diseases or create specific treatments. i want to close by urging all our colleagues to join us, a majority of us, a large majority of us, in supporting s. 56789 i think it's been made better because the sponsors of the bill 13:39:03.3 that actual lint dued legislation -- that actually introduced legislation, i think it was legislation offered last year by senators specter and santorum, now as part of this legislation. i think it's made it better. but we shouldn't have to wait any longer to move forward. 13:39:19.4 we focus our resources and attention today to find cures, we'll save more lives now. it will also save money in the long run. i will close by saying for those who believe that this legislation would somehow divert us from pursuing the use of stem 13:39:37.1 cells, adult stem cells or stem cells that may come from umbilical cords, it doesn't do that. we should pursue those paths as well. in pursuing those paths, we shouldn't close the door on this 13:39:49.1 path. we should pursue this path too. and to those who have brought us to this day, our colleague, congressman castle from delaware, to the sponsors of this bill today and all who join in supporting it, and people around the country who join us in supporting it as well. thank you for doing a good thing 13:40:05.2 for a lot of people who need our help. thank you. mr. harkin: mr. president, again, i want to thank my good friend, tom carper, the senator from delaware for his eloquent and personal kind of statement. actually, that is what this is 13:40:19.6 all about. it is about helping people who are suffering some really bad problems, need some help in their health care. i thank him for his support. now i yield to the person who really has been the leader in all our health care issues here for so many years and i think is recognized as such by the entire 13:40:36.3 country, a great leader in all haourbg issues, he is -- health care issues, especially in our issues of stem cell research, i yield to senator kennedy. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. 13:40:53.5 mr. kennedy: mr. president i -- [inaudible] -- as well as senator specter for really the extraordinary leadership that they have provided on this issue, which is so important to the families in 13:41:12.3 our country. we deal with a lot of issues around this body, but this 13:41:23.1 particular legislation probably offers more hope to more people than perhaps anything else that we'll do here in the united states senate this year. we think of all of the various 13:41:37.9 kinds of illnesses and sicknesses, diseases, accidents that have affected so many families here in the senate; most importantly to the american family. 13:41:50.3 and we know that we have really the best in terms of the treatment of these illnesses and sickness here in the united states. those that are able to receive it. but there are still all of these 13:42:09.5 illnesses and sicknesses that have defied the ablest and most gifted minds until very, very recently, and that is with the 13:42:24.3 discovery that really started about ten years ago with the opportunity for using stem cells that can play a very indispensable role in providing a cure for these individuals. and that's what this is 13:42:42.3 basically really all about, an extraordinary opportunity that is out there, and whether we here in the united states are going to permit the great institution, the greatest institution for research -- the national institutes of health -- 13:42:58.3 to be able to unleash the vastness of the creativity, the brilliance, the ability of so many of those researchers and scientists to try and unlock the cures for so many of these diseases and do it in a way 13:43:15.6 which is ethically sound and for so many of the reasons that have been spelled out. so this is enormously timely, mr. president. i thank senator harkin for his persistence and -- in ensuring 13:43:36.3 that we were going to be able to have this on the floor of the united states senate in a timely way. i thank our leader, senator reid, for scheduling this. and i thank the broad bipartisan 13:43:52.4 coalition that has come together, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle that have given strong support for this legislation. it's pretty popular at this time in washington to talk about the 13:44:06.5 differences that exist in our nation's capital, and there are some very important ones. but, mr. president, we have really come together, republican and democrat, house and senate, those that have over a long 13:44:24.3 period of time advocated the pro-life position, those that have felt that the ability for individuals to make judgments about their own future, all have come together in support of this 13:44:44.7 legislation. so this is a very special time, and it is enormously important, this vote that we're going to have tomorrow. and, again, i thank my colleagues and friends for bringing us to the point where 13:44:58.5 we are today. nearly a decade ago american scientists made the revolutionary discovery that tiny cells called stem cells held the extraordinary potential to offer new hope and new help in the fight against diabetes and parkinson's disease, spinal 13:45:15.7 injury, and many other illnesses. and six years ago many of us here in the senate joined millions of patients and their families in calling on president bush to support this lifesaving research.p sadly he 13:45:32.4 rejected the calls and imposed severe restrictions on the search if the cures. since those severe limitations were imposed, we have struggled to free american scientists from these unwarranted restrictions. last year, we scored a great victory when the house and senate, with broad bipartisan 13:45:51.1 majority voted to end the restrictions. but, those efforts came to nothing with a veto. we are back at the battle again. i think i share the view of my colleagues and friends in saying 13:46:05.4 if we are not successful -- although we are hopeful we will be -- we will continue this battle, day in and day out, until we are successful. so, today we renew our hope that the president will start anew 13:46:19.1 and consider the merits of this new legislation instead of automatically picking under the veto penn. when congress passed the bipartisan stem cell bill last year we voted for hope, we voted for progress, and for life. 13:46:35.1 for president bush, he close to veto the legislation. now we are taking up the cause once again. in our legislation, again, it brings together conservatives and progressives, members of congress on both sides of the debate over the women's right to 13:46:49.7 choose, representatives from big cities, small towns, rural communities. we all agree that stem cell research must go forward. this legislation before us is only six pages long. it's a short, simple bill with 13:47:06.7 enormous goals and vast potential. it overturns the unrealistic and unreasonable restrictions on the embryonic stem cell research imposed by the president's executive order five years ago. the unilateral action bypassed 13:47:22.2 congress and froze progress in its traffic by barring n.i.h. from using stem cell deprived after august of 2001, a date chosen to coincide with the 13:47:36.9 president's speech. many of us warned at that time that this policy would delay the search for new cures and put needless barriers in the way of medical progress. and at a health committee hearing just days after the executive order was issued, many of us raised concerns about the 13:47:53.7 new policy and urged the president to reconsider. our concerns were dismissed by the administration. by time has shown that each of the drawbacks we feared then, have become a real barrier to progress today. at the time of the executive 13:48:09.1 order the administration claimed only 60 independent stem lines would be available to n.i.h. researchers. we found, as our friends from california, and senator harkin pointed out, only 22 of the stem lines are available to n.i.h. researchers. 13:48:23.9 all of those were obligated using out of date methods and outmoded techniques. we listened carefully, mr. president, to the words of dr. landis, chair of the n.i.h. stem cell task force in testimony before the united 13:48:40.2 states senate in january of this year. "we are missing out on a possible breakthrough. federally funded research has monitoring oversight, transparently that privately funded research will not necessarily have. the cell lines available to the n.i.h. funding have been now 13:48:56.8 shown to have genetic instabilities" pointing out the missed opportunities being placed now because of the restrictions put on by the administration. scpefen the research that is being done -- and even the 13:49:12.4 research that is being done in the private sector, as limited it is, is lacking in monitoring and oversight. in many instances the enormously area of ethical considerations that have been included in this legislation. 13:49:28.3 as has been mentioned here earlier during the discussion but needs to be mentioned again, mr. president, the excellent statement by the director of the national institutes of health before the senate on march 19th where he points out the side line of the n.i.h. in such an issue of importance is 13:49:46.0 "in my view, shortsighted. i think it would not serve the nation well in the long run. we need to find a way to move forward." these are two of the most distinguished researchers, scientists. dr. zerhouni has a brilliant 13:50:03.0 record at n.i.h. and dr. landis has had a brilliant record. anyone who has the opportunity to listen to him and listen to him respond to questions cannot help but leave that kind of meeting, recognizing and supporting his position. 13:50:18.3 so, that is -- those are the issues. that is what this legislation is really about, mr. president. our legislation makes the basic change needed to reverse our current policy. as has been pointed out, 13:50:34.5 science, without ethics; like a ship without a rudder. for that reason, the legislation establishes essential ethical safeguards for stem cell research. enormously important. and has been reviewed earlier during this debate and 13:50:51.8 discussion. mr. president, our legislation authorizes new initiatives for obtaining the stem cells from sources other than embryos. we strongly support ongoing research for alternatives to embryonic stem cell research but 13:51:07.6 is fundamentally wrong to shut down the promise of new cures while that search is underway. in the end, this debate is not about abstract principles or 13:51:17.1 complex aspects of science, about the people would look with hope to stem cell research to help them with the challenges that they face. mr. president, it's as important to sergeant jason whittley. 13:51:36.0 let me read about sergeant whittley, injured in iraq, united states marine corps: "i was in charlie company, first 13:51:49.2 marine division. i spent 10 years one month, and 28 days in the marines corps -- but who's counting. on may 9th, 2003, in iraq, i was disposing of iraqi ordinances and the fuse went off 13:52:09.7 prematurely and, as a result of the accident," the vehicle overturned on him and "i had fractures of my c 6 vertebrae in my neck, broke my right wrist 13:52:21.9 and a number of other injuries." he's in his wheelchair now, brave and courageous marine. he believes, sergeant whittley looks to stem cell research for 13:52:35.7 new hope for his injuries. he has had multiple, multiple, multiple surgeries. here is lands corps ral -- lance corporal james crosby who enlisted at age 17, married, 13:52:52.2 living in california before service and the injury. march 18th, james was wounded by enemy fire while riding in the back of a united states military vehicle when a rocket fired and injured the driver and injured who marines. 13:53:09.4 shrapnel penetrated his side. james was immediately sent to a hospital in kuwait and had the first operation there. stabilized. finally, flown to a u.s. military hospital in germany. in germany, james underwent 13:53:23.7 several surgeries to remove shrapnel and repair wounds. james and his wife who was flown to germany to be with him, and he is now in a wheelchair. he has had multiple additional operations. 13:53:39.2 he has lost 50-pounds and requires a colostomy bags and now in a wheel chair, paralyzed from the waste down and has high hope that stem cell research can 13:53:55.8 be of help and assistance to permitting him to recover from the wounds. there are countless others that have similar injuries and recognize the importance of this 13:54:13.5 research. i'm going to conclude, mr. president, with a letter that i received from a 15-year-old lauren from massachusetts, who has juvenile 13:54:29.6 diabetes. in her letter she wrote of her hope of what stem cell research means to her and her family. she wrote me again this year. she is still full of hope, but you can also hear her frustration. these are her words: i'm now wearing a continuous glucose 13:54:47.7 monitoring system. it has a wire probe that i insert under my skin every few days on my own. when i first held the wire probe to my thigh i was scared to death. the needle was huge. i was going to be plunging it 13:55:03.5 into my body. would it hurt? what if it didn't work? was it worth the risk? after about 20 minutes of sweat and shaking, i found the guts to do it. and then as soon as i did, i knew almost immediately it was 13:55:18.5 the right thing to do. it went in fine. it did not hurt that much. it is helping me." those were her words. she goes on to write about our zigs on how to vote on this legislation now. here's what she writes: "some of you might be scared to vote yes. 13:55:34.8 you know it's the right thing to do. after all, if embryos are being discarded, how can it not be right to use them to help people like me? your hand is lingering over the lever like mine was, over the insertion device. 13:55:50.6 you can see it might do some good but you're afraid. someone might get mad. it might hurt a little. but follow my lead. be brave. do something that might hurt a little or scare you for a second but after, will make so many things so much better. 13:56:07.8 vote yes it allow scientists to do this valuable research to free kids like me from horrible 13:56:15.9 diseases. vote yes and take another step along with me in finding cures. no one ever said doing the right thing, the brave thing, the thing to make the world better would be easy. i elevenned the hard way. vote yes. 13:56:28.9 free me from the machines that keep me alike. clear away my future of kidney damage, blindness and fear of a shortened life." those are lauren's words. they compel us to act. tomorrow, we can cast a vote of courage by approving the stem 13:56:46.9 cell research enhancement act. we call upon the president of the united states to think anew and decide not to veto hope. i yield back the remainder of my time. 13:57:10.4 a senator: how much time remains? the presiding officer: eight minutes and 44 seconds. mr. webb: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.