TAPE: EF01/0452 IN_TIME: 03:48:00 - 14:30:48 DURATION: 1:37 SOURCES: CH9 RESTRICTIONS: DATELINE: Toogoolawah near Brisbane, Queensland, Australia - June 6, 2001 and File 1993 SHOTLIST: June 6 1. Amateur video of parachuting accident 2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Archie Jamieson, Skydiver: "It was a case of we couldn't really salvage anything out of it. We discussed it with one another, not an in depth conversation by all means, but it was just a case of you're clear you can cut away." 3. Close up of Jamieson's cut wrist File - 1993 4. File of similar incident eight years ago June 6 5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Archie Jamieson, Skydiver: "Yeah it's certainly worth. I love what I do, I skydive for a living." 6. Close up skydivers looking at tangled parachutes 7. Skydivers looking at parachutes 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Andrew Whitten, Skydiving Team Captain: "In the overall scheme of things it's not going to cost us a real lot of time or jumps so it's just another learning experience." 9. Amateur vision of parachuting accident 10. Tangled parachutes 11. Skydiving team discussing tactics 12. Jamieson and Whitten talking STORYLINE: Two members of the Australian skydiving team had a lucky escape over the Queensland town of Toogoolawah on Tuesday when their parachutes became entangled. They plunged to earth from five thousand feet (1524 meters) but remarkably they lived to tell their tale. The chilling incident was captured on amateur video by a colleague. They had performed this trick, the four man canopy stack, many times but on Tuesday it all went wrong. The chutes of two team members, Archie Jamieson and Wayne McLaughlin became entangled and they fell for thirteen seconds before McLaughlin cut himself loose. It was another eight seconds before Jamieson could get free. They both went into free fall but managed to activate their reserve chutes just in time to break their fall. Jamieson suffered burns to his wrist, otherwise, apart from their pride, both men were uninjured. Eight years ago Jamieson was involved in a similar accident during the same stunt but also managed to cut himself free then. Both men have quickly regained their feet. They resumed training on Wednesday for the world championships in Spain later this month.

AP-APTN-0930: US Plane Crash Monday, 19 September 2011 STORY:US Plane Crash- REPLAY Survivor recounts airshow crash, safety officials comment LENGTH: 02:40 FIRST RUN: 0030 RESTRICTIONS: Part No Access NAmerica/internet/FILE TYPE: English/nats SOURCE: AP TELEVISION/ABC/AP PHOTOS STORY NUMBER: 706077 DATELINE: Reno - 16/18 Sept 2011 LENGTH: 02:40 AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY AP TELEVISION - NO ACCESS N.AMERICA/INTERNET ABC - NO ACCESS NAMERICA/INTERNET AP PHOTOS - NO ACCESS CANADA/FOR BROADCAST USE ONLY - STRICTLY NO ACCESS ONLINE OR MOBILE SHOTLIST AP TELEVISION - NO ACCESS N.AMERICA/INTERNET (++PLEASE NOTE RESTRICTIONS++) Reno, Nevada - 16 September 2011 MANDATORY COURTESY: Jacobsen Enterprises No Resale ++QUALITY AS INCOMING++ 1. Amateur video of plane crashing into ground during air show AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Reno, Nevada - 18 September 2011 2. Crash survivor, Noah Joraanstad, in hospital bead 3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Noah Joraanstad, crash survivor "I thought I was going to die, and I was like all right, I'm just going to run for it, and I did, and I think I was very very fortunate, I thank God for it...the shrapnel that hit me hit me right in the right spot where it just missed all my important organs and arteries and my spine, so like I said I'm very blessed." 4. Cutaway of Joraanstad in hospital bead 5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Noah Joraanstad, crash survivor "It's just tragic but I don't have any anger towards anybody and I would go to another air show." AP PHOTOS - No Access Canada/For Broadcast use only - Strictly No Access Online or Mobile Reno, Nevada -16 September 2011 6. STILL photo debris flying at crash site ABC - NO ACCESS NAMERICA/INTERNET Reno, Nevada - 18 September 2011 7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Mark Rosekind, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spokesman: "The investigators have found that the accident aircraft was equipped with a video camera facing outward. They have also found camera fragments at the wreckage site, and among the wreckage site they have found multiple memory cards that could have come from the camera. Clearly we can't tell at this point whether or not any of those memory cards are from the accident aircraft, and so those memory cards, all that have been found will be sent to the NTSB research and engineering laboratory in Washington DC for analysis." AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Reno, Nevada - 18 September 2011 8. Wide of photos of the crash site, relatives mourning their loss and pilot that died in the crash 9. Close of photo of the deceased pilot, Jimmy Leeward 10. Wide of photos of the crash site, relatives mourning their loss and pilot that died in the crash 11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Father Thomas Babu, priest: (partly overlaid with close of plaque in the memory of the victims of the crash) "We take at this time a moment of silence in prayer to show our love and respect for those who lost their lives." 12. Various of people gathered in church during moment of silence 13. Various of poster at makeshift memorial reading (English) "Our prayers are with you September 14, 2001." 14. Local resident taking picture at memorial site 15. SOUNDBITE (English) Ron Knutsen, eye witness to the crash: "It wouldn't matter if they move the planes back a mile, it would still be possible for planes to lose control and, wherever the crowd is, to crash into it and cause casualties." 16. Various of candles at memorial STORYLINE One of the survivors from Friday's fatal air show crash in Reno, Nevada, spoke from his hospital bed about his ordeal on Sunday and said he felt "sure he was going to die" as the plane plummeted to the earth and counts himself "fortunate" to still be alive. Noah Joraanstad was blown off his feet as he tried to run away. Shrapnel hit his back, and he was covered in aviation fuel that burned his skin as spectators tried to wash it off. From his bed at Northern Nevada Medical Centre, where nine stitches were put in his head, Joraanstad said that he was lucky that the shrapnel from the plane did not hit his arteries or spine. "It's just tragic but I don't have any anger towards anybody and I would go to another air show," added the 25-year-old commercial pilot from Alaska. Investigators still do not know what caused the plane to pitch sharply into the crowd at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, killing at least nine people, including pilot Jimmy Leeward, and injuring dozens. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said the plane had a video camera facing outward, and memory cards were found at the scene where it crashed near a grandstand in Reno. "Clearly we can't tell at this point whether or not any of those memory cards are from the accident aircraft, and so those memory cards, all that have been found will be sent to the NTSB research and engineering laboratory in Washington DC for analysis," said Mark Rosekind, NTSB spokesman. Before it crashed, the aircraft also sent information to the racing team crew including oil pressure and temperature, altitude and velocity. That information could help investigators determine what caused the plane to crash. Officials said they have heard reports the pilot sent a mayday call before crashing. They said so far there is no evidence of a call. The plane hit the first few rows of VIP box seats, causing a crater roughly three feet (0.9 metre) deep and 8 feet (2.4 metres) across with debris spread out over more than an acre. Some members of the crowd have reported noticing a strange gurgling engine noise from above before the P-51 Mustang, dubbed The Galloping Ghost, pitched violently upward, twirled and took an immediate nosedive into the crowd. The death toll rose to nine Saturday as investigators determined that several onlookers were killed on impact as the plane appeared to lose a piece of its tail before slamming into the crowded tarmac. Officials said 69 people were treated at hospitals, including 46 who have been released and 31 who remain there. Six were in critical condition on Sunday morning. Doctors who treated the injured said it was among the most severe situations they had ever seen because of the large number of people wounded, including at least two children younger than 18 who are not among those in critical condition. Injuries included major head wounds, facial trauma and limb injuries, including amputations, doctors said. Ron Knutsen, a visitor from Santa Rosa, California, was in the grandstand on Friday and witnessed the crash. Even though he was several hundred feet away, Knutsen said he was also hit with small pieces of debris. "It wouldn't matter if they move the planes back a mile, it would still be possible for planes to lose control and, wherever the crowd is, to crash into it," said Knutsen. National Transportation Safety Board officials were on the scene Sunday to determine what caused Leeward to lose control of the plane, and they were looking at amateur video clips that appeared to show a small piece of the aircraft falling to the ground before the crash. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN (Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-09-19-11 0541EDT

FTG FOR JOHN MCKENZIE CS VO ON FIGHTING DIABETES / A PROMISING NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT COULD FREE JUVENILE DIABETES SUFFERERS FROM INSULIN / THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY, BUT ARE PROMISING / FTG OF UNITED STATES (US) SENATE FLOOR DEBATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH BILLS 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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

FTG FOR JOHN MCKENZIE CS VO ON FIGHTING DIABETES / A PROMISING NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT COULD FREE JUVENILE DIABETES SUFFERERS FROM INSULIN / THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY, BUT ARE PROMISING / FTG OF UNITED STATES (US) SENATE FLOOR DEBATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH BILLS 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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

FTG FOR JOHN MCKENZIE CS VO ON FIGHTING DIABETES / A PROMISING NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT COULD FREE JUVENILE DIABETES SUFFERERS FROM INSULIN / THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY, BUT ARE PROMISING / FTG OF UNITED STATES (US) SENATE FLOOR DEBATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH BILLS 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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

FTG FOR JOHN MCKENZIE CS VO ON FIGHTING DIABETES / A PROMISING NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT COULD FREE JUVENILE DIABETES SUFFERERS FROM INSULIN / THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY, BUT ARE PROMISING / FTG OF UNITED STATES (US) SENATE FLOOR DEBATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH BILLS 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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

FTG FOR JOHN MCKENZIE CS VO ON FIGHTING DIABETES / A PROMISING NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT COULD FREE JUVENILE DIABETES SUFFERERS FROM INSULIN / THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY, BUT ARE PROMISING / FTG OF UNITED STATES (US) SENATE FLOOR DEBATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH BILLS 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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

FTG FOR JOHN MCKENZIE CS VO ON FIGHTING DIABETES / A PROMISING NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT COULD FREE JUVENILE DIABETES SUFFERERS FROM INSULIN / THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY, BUT ARE PROMISING / FTG OF UNITED STATES (US) SENATE FLOOR DEBATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH BILLS 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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

FTG FOR JOHN MCKENZIE CS VO ON FIGHTING DIABETES / A PROMISING NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT COULD FREE JUVENILE DIABETES SUFFERERS FROM INSULIN / THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY, BUT ARE PROMISING / FTG OF UNITED STATES (US) SENATE FLOOR DEBATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH BILLS 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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

FTG FOR JOHN MCKENZIE CS VO ON FIGHTING DIABETES / A PROMISING NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT COULD FREE JUVENILE DIABETES SUFFERERS FROM INSULIN / THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY, BUT ARE PROMISING / FTG OF UNITED STATES (US) SENATE FLOOR DEBATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH BILLS 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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

FTG FOR JOHN MCKENZIE CS VO ON FIGHTING DIABETES / A PROMISING NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT COULD FREE JUVENILE DIABETES SUFFERERS FROM INSULIN / THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY, BUT ARE PROMISING / FTG OF UNITED STATES (US) SENATE FLOOR DEBATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH BILLS 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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

FTG FOR JOHN MCKENZIE CS VO ON FIGHTING DIABETES / A PROMISING NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT COULD FREE JUVENILE DIABETES SUFFERERS FROM INSULIN / THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY, BUT ARE PROMISING / FTG OF UNITED STATES (US) SENATE FLOOR DEBATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH BILLS 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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

FTG FOR JOHN MCKENZIE CS VO ON FIGHTING DIABETES / A PROMISING NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT COULD FREE JUVENILE DIABETES SUFFERERS FROM INSULIN / THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY, BUT ARE PROMISING / FTG OF UNITED STATES (US) SENATE FLOOR DEBATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH BILLS 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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

FTG FOR JOHN MCKENZIE CS VO ON FIGHTING DIABETES / A PROMISING NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT COULD FREE JUVENILE DIABETES SUFFERERS FROM INSULIN / THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY, BUT ARE PROMISING / FTG OF UNITED STATES (US) SENATE FLOOR DEBATE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH BILLS 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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

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 11:07:00.0 ms. landrieu: mr. president? 11:07:00.9 the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana is recognized. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i rise today as if in morning 11:07:16.3 business to speak about the passing of an extraordinary man. today in baton rouge, in the capital, the son of a 11:07:31.8 sharecropper will lie in state. it is a fitting tribute to coach eddie robinson, the winningest coach in the history of football, but a man who excelled beyond the playing field, a man 11:07:49.0 whose life touched hundreds and thousands of athletes on the field and off and millions of lives in a positive way around the world. 11:08:03.0 i rise to pay him tribute today. he is a true american hero. he began coaching in 1941, at grambling state university. 11:08:22.2 during his 57-year coaching tenure, he won more than 400 football games, more than any other coach before him, and 17 championships in the southwestern athletic conference. 11:08:37.8 coach robinson shattered the glass ceiling that had always held back the true potential of african-american players and coaches. he did it with a strong and indomitable spirit and 11:08:55.6 determination and love of country. in a time before the civil rights movement, when overt and state-sponsored racism was the order of the day and permeated both college and professional 11:09:12.6 sports, coach robinson proved that all athletes deserve to compete on the same playing field. throughout years, more than 200 of his players have played in the nfl, including paul tank 11:09:31.1 younger, the first envelope nfl, from a predominantly african-american college. coach robinson was personally responsible for paving the way 11:09:43.6 for hundreds of african-american players to have the opportunity to play in the nfl and as well to play in majority white colleges and universities throughout the country. his legacy includes one of the most exciting annual matchups in college sports held every year, 11:10:02.8 the thanksgiving bayou classic, usually in new orleans, louisiana, between granbling state, his beloved university, and southern university of baton rouge. 11:10:16.2 buzz his achievements or -- but his achievements are not limited to athletic victories. he taught his team the meaning of patriotism and self-respect and hard work. he provided them with the real lessons of life that extended far beyond the playing fields. and after their experience at 11:10:39.2 grambling, i know how proud he was to see his young athletes excel and move all over the world, impacting the wider community in business and in athletics as well and in general 11:10:53.9 community service in multiple ways. he leaves behind a vibrant legacy. he leaves behind a legacy of mentorship that is truly unmatched. he leaves behind a loving and wonderful family, a faith that 11:11:11.5 permeated his entire life and had impact throughout the community. he leaves behind a life well lived and a model for all. one of his former players said it best when he said, "everyone wanted to be like eddie." 11:11:30.7 mr. president, i close these remarks today by saying that i, like most everyone in louisiana, knew coach robinson. we had been in his presence, we had watched him coach, we had heard him laugh, and i had the great privilege of spending some 11:11:47.3 time with him recently in his home in grambling, with his wife doris, and some of the family members. i cannot help to be, even at his late eighth of 88, impress -- 11:12:02.0 late age of 88, impressed with his strong and wonderful spirit. when he was just a few years younger and as he walked into the room, you could feel that spirit immediately. so it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to coach eddie robinson, but it is with great 11:12:16.0 joy that we share with the world this man, the son of a sharecropper, a man who refused to let the limits of even the laws of his time and the limits of the culture in which he lived to stop him or to stop his 11:12:32.1 belief in the young men and women that he coached and he served. so we say goodbye today, but he is getting a proper tribute laying in state at our state capital in baton rouge, and we are confident that his legacy 11:12:47.2 will live on. in my last visit with his family, i hoped and suggested that we could build a museum in his honor. i'm hoping that it's something that members of this congress will join with our leaders at home not just any museum, but a museum that will honor his life 11:13:02.7 and legacy, a place where fleets -- where athletes, professional and amateur, could receive ongoing training and support, both scholastically, as well as in terms of general leadership, so that this legacy could live 11:13:19.5 on and perhaps this place or the center of learning and leadership should be located either on or somewhere very near the grambling campus where he served for so many years. so again, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye, but 11:13:36.2 with great pride of a true american hero, eddie robinson. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the chair 11:13:53.4 recognizes the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time of morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the 11:14:08.8 consideration of s. res. 140, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 140, to authorize legal representation in the matter of application of committee on finance. the presiding officer: without 11:14:25.0 objection, we will proceed to the measure. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that a statement by the majority leader be inserted in the record with no intervening action. the presiding officer: without 11:14:40.3 objection, it is so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, that today, tuesday, that debate with respect to the stem cell bills be in alternating segments of 60 minutes as follows: 60 minutes under the control of senator 11:14:55.9 harkin or his designee, the next 60 minutes under the control of the republican leader's designee, senator coleman, the next 60 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and then the next 60 minutes under the control of senator brownback, 11:15:12.0 and continuing in that alternating fashion until 9:00 p.m. on tuesday.pthe presit objection of. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that any coal and grant gustafson be 11:15:29.3 granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration en bloc of s. 5 and s. 30, which the clerk will 11:15:43.9 report. the clerk: calendar number 3, s. 5, a bill to amend the public health service act, to provide for human embryonic stem cell research. s. 30, a bill to intensify research to derive human pluripotent stem cell lines. 11:16:04.9 the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. harkin: well, mr. president, i just noted that as the clerk reported the bill, reported it as an amendment to the public health service act, and that's what this debate is 11:16:20.1 all about. and that's what this vote going to be about. it is going to be about the public health of people in this country and around the world and whether or not they're going to have hope that they will see a future in which modern medical science can actually overcome 11:16:39.1 and cure things like parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, spinal cord disease and a host of other illnesses. that's what this debate is about. 11:16:51.2 it is about hope. it's about health. and so today begins 20 hours of senate debate on a bill to lift 11:16:59.2 the administration's restrictions on stem cell research and bring hope to millions of people in this country who are suffering from things like a.l.s., juvenile diabetes, parkinson's, spinal diseases and other diseases. 11:17:17.0 most americans still find it hard to believe that we're arguing about this issue. they've listened to the scientists. they watched the house and senate vote overwhelmingly during the last congress to 11:17:30.8 expand the administration's policy. then they went to the polls in november and more often than not elected candidates who support stem cell ref. so why are we still debating this? well, the answer unfortunately is simple. president bush used his first 11:17:47.5 and so far only veto of his administration to reject last year's stem cell bill and dash the hopes of millions of americans. so we're back here once again. i want to thank my colleagues in 11:18:02.1 the senate who've worked together on this issue, starting of course with my colleague, senator arlen specter of pennsylvania. he chaired the very first hearing in congress on embryonic stem cells in december of 1998. in all, our labor, health, human 11:18:20.1 services and education appropriations subcommittee has held 20 hearings on this research since then under the chairman of senator specter. -- under the chairmanship of senator speck templt i also want to thank the leaders on stem 11:18:37.0 cell, senator hatch, senator kennedy, senator smith, senator feinstein. so counting senator specter and me, there are three republicans and three democrats on that list. that's truly been a bipartisan effort all the way. 11:18:50.6 i want to thank our majority leader, senator reid bes for scheduling this debate and making sure the ea one of the first issues that we vote on in pentagon 110th congress. i also want to thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for working with us to schedule this debate and this vote tomorrow. 11:19:08.8 but i guess most of all i want to thank the hundreds of thousands of families and patients who never gave up, who kept up the pressure to bring this bill to the floor and who are so eager to see s. 5 sent to the president's desk. they have kept the faith. 11:19:25.1 now it is our job to see that they're not disappointed. now, there's probably one other entity that i should thank and that's the house of representatives under the able leadership of senator pelosi who passed this bill earlier this week and sent it over to the 11:19:41.7 senate. i will talk a little bit later about how our bill differs from theirs, but nonetheless, the bill that they passed is a bill that mirrors the same thing that we're doing here and that's to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 11:19:58.5 so under this unanimous consent agreement that we have for information we'll debate on vote on two bills. make no mistake, however. the only one that really matters is s. 5rbg the stem cell research enhancement afnlght the other bill is s. 30. 11:20:14.1 this is the one bill that at long last will unleash some of the most promising and exciting research of modern times. s. 5rbg the bill that we'll be debating in and voting on, will take the handcuffs off of off of our scientists. 11:20:28.7 take the handcuffs off so that they can now begin to do the research that will lead to miraculous cures and interventions. so it is a good time to step back and ask, why is there so much support for s. 5? well, i've got a letter signed by 525 groups endorsing this 11:20:49.6 bill, patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups. 525 groups in all, and they all gley congress should pass s. 5 11:21:05.8 -- and they all agree that congress should pass s. 5. why is that? well, mr. president, because it offers hope. embryonic stem cells -- i have a series of charts here which i will point to. s. 5 offers hope. 11:21:20.2 and i think that this i will strait straition kind of illustrates many -- not all, but many of the items in which scientists tell us that embryonic stem cells could lead to the interventions and cures. lou gehrig's disease, 11:21:37.7 alzheimer's, parkinson z disease, muscular disclow trophy, bone marrow disorders, diabetes, immune deficiencies, spinal cord injuries. 11:21:53.8 that's adjust to name a few. you get the idea of how 11:21:59.5 all-encompassing the approach would be if we were to get into embryonic stem cell research. it's not just focused on one thing. it's broader than that. and it enexases so many illnesses and afflictions. all tolled, more unanimous 100 11:22:14.6 million americans have diseases that one day could be treated or cured with embryonic stem cell research. but it is not just us members of congress saying that. no one should take our word alone. three weeks ago dr. elliott sorhuniment, the director of the 11:22:30.8 national institutes of health, appeared before our appropriations subcommittee. i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current cree he restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was lifted. 11:22:46.1 the doctor said, unequivocally, yes. now the doctor is the federal government's top scientists in the area of research. president bush appointed him to be the director of the n.i.h. so it took great courage for him 11:23:03.7 to say that we need to change direction on stem cell research. but he did so because it's the truth. and this was his quote. this is what dr. zerhouni said before our subcommittee, the 11:23:18.8 director of the national institutes of health. "it's clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better serve fundamental we let our sign tfts have access to more cell lines..." it is not just n.i.h. scientist 11:23:37.6 whose believe this way. dr. jay michael bishop who won the nobel prize in medicine wrote "the vast majority of the biomedical research community believes that human embryonic stem cells are likely to be the source of key discoveries 11:23:53.5 righted to many debilitating diseases." dr. harold var must, the former director of the national institutes of health, who just preceded dr. zerhouni wrote in the letter dated yesterday, "s. 11:24:11.2 5 represents an important step forward for human embryonic stem cell research, a new field that offers great promise for the replacement of damaged cells, the understanding of the mechanics of disease, and the 11:24:25.0 development and testing of new drugs. unfortunately, current federal policy has not kept pace with the speed of scientific discovery and is today of limited value to the scientific community." 11:24:44.5 well, i could go on and on. we have a lot of scientists all over this country and the world who agree that we should be pursuing embryonic stem cell research because it offers 11:24:58.3 enormous hope to easing human suffering. now, some may ask, i thought the federal government already supports embryonic stem cell research? well, here we have an interesting situation here in terms of the -- of federal 11:25:14.9 funding for embryonic stem cell research. i have to take you back in time to august the 9th of 2001. in an evening address, starting at:00 p.m., on august 9, 2001, 11:25:32.4 the president in an address to the nation said that we were going to permit federal funding for embryonic stem cells only if they were derived prior to 9:00 11:25:47.3 p.m. august the 9th of 2001. any that were derived after that, we could not fund research on. well, at that time it was said 11:26:01.4 there were 78 lines, 78 stem cell lines, that we could use. well, we now know that's less than 21 now and many of these are in bad shape and every single one of them contam 11:26:16.2 naughted on mouse feeder sevments which i'll talk about in a moment. but it also -- i always thought it was kind of interesting, very curious, that we had this hypocrisy. i call it stem cell parliamentary inquiry po 11:26:31.6 chrissie, that before 9:00 p.m. on august 9, 2001, it is morally acceptable to use taxpayers' dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research. so if the stem cells were derived before 9:00 perjures utah ea morally acceptable. 11:26:48.5 but if they were derived after 9:00 p.m. on august 9, it's morally unacceptable. well, i ask, what is so significant about 9:00 p.m. on 11:26:58.1 august 9? why couldn't it have been 8:30 p.m.? 9:15 p.m.? midnight? 10:00 p.m.? well, i think you get the point. 11:27:13.0 it's totally arbitrary. totally, totally arbitrary. you have to ask yourself, why is it that federal tax dollars could be used on embryonic stem cells derived before 9:00 p.m. -- that's okay -- but after 9:00 11:27:28.6 p.m., it's not okay. please, someone tell me why 9:00 p.m. august 9 is the moral dividing line. toltly arbitrary. well, we had hoped -- even with 11:27:45.4 that, we had hoped that the president's policy had worked. but it hasn't. and here's why. at that date the president said that there were 78 stem cell lines available. we now know that only 21 are eligible. 11:27:59.0 that's not nearly enough to redplekt the genetic diversity that scientists need to develop treatments for everyone in the country. what's more, every single one -- every single one of these approved lines are contaminated by mouse feeder cells. 11:28:19.0 well, what that means is that when you take these stem cells and you propagate them -- you get them to flow grow -- you do them in a medium. you grow them in things. they were groanl in mouse feeder cells. 11:28:34.1 so they're all contaminated. ask yourself, would you like to take the possibility that somehow mouse cells were getting into your body because of stem cells? no. and many of the 21 lines are just too uneliminatey. they've degeneral ratted. 11:28:50.5 they're unhealthy. i've been told we're down to about right now only four. dr. elizabeth navel, the director of the heart, lung, and blood institute said that only four of the 21 federal lei 11:29:05.5 proved lines are in common use by n.i.h.-funded scientists. only four. dr. jerry burg, another n.i.h. director said really there are six lines in common use. four or circumstance you get the picture. 11:29:20.3 it is not 78. it is owl four or sismghts and there again they're conat that con--they're contaminated with e feeder sells cells. so some stem cell research is take place. but our top scientists are working with one arm tied behind 11:29:37.9 their backs. it is having a chilling impact on scientists who are thinking about interght field. according to the director of the n.i.h. drug abuse institute, the administration's policy is discouraging scientists from applying for n.i.h. funding. 11:29:55.8 in a letter last year she wrote -- quote -- "despite general interest and enthusiasm in the scientific community for embryonic stem cell research, the limited number of available lines has translated into a general lack of research proposals."p 11:30:12.9 so the president's policy, which we've had in effect since 9:00 p.m. of august 9, 2001, is not a way forward. it's an absolute dead end for research. it only offers false hope to the millions of people across 11:30:28.0 america and the world who are suffering from diseases that could be cured or treated through embryonic stem cell research. meanwhile, meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since the president's arbitrary time of august the 9th of 2001. 11:30:45.3 the n.i.h. estimates there are about 400 worldwide, 400 different stem cell lines been derived. many of those lines are uncontaminated, they're healthy, but they're totally off-limits to federally funded scientists. scientists in many other 11:31:04.3 countries around the world don't face these kinds of arbitrary restrictions. when you talk to researchers in england, for example, our policy makes no sense to them. they can't understand why stem cell lines derived on one date are fine to use, but if they're derived on another date, they're 11:31:20.1 off-limits. i don't understand that either. i've wrestled with that since 9:00 p.m. of august the 9th, 2001. i mean if you're going to take the position that this is totally morally unacceptable and there should be no federal 11:31:37.4 funding, then we should have no federal funding. there's those four or five that are now being examined and studied and shouldn't be allowed either. but i haven't seep any amendments -- seen any amendments from anyone here that 11:31:52.7 would even overturn that president's policy. 11:31:57.0 well, it's a shame that we don't open up these stem cell lines. i think about it this way: we don't require astronomers to explore the skies with 19th century telescopes. we don't tell our geologists to 11:32:12.4 study the earth with tape measures. if we're serious about realizing the promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best stem cell lines available. again, don't take my word for 11:32:31.9 it. dr. storiy landis runs the stem cell task force at n.i.h. in january, she appeared before a joint hearing of the "help" committee chaired by senator committee and my subcommittee. 11:32:45.8 senator kennedy asked her whether scientists are missing out on possible breakthroughs under the administration's current policy and this was her answer -- quote -- "yes, we are missing out on possible breakthroughs, from a purely scientific perspective, federal 11:33:01.8 funding of additional cell lines is necessary to advance the field." this is dr. landis, the head of the stem cell task force at n.i.h. so what we need is a stem cell policy in this country that offers true meaningful hope to 11:33:17.4 patients and their loved ones, and that's what s. 5 would provide. under our bill, federal funded researchers could study any stem cell line regardless of the date it was derived as long as strict ethical guidelines are met. 11:33:33.1 i think it's important to emphasize this, that we have very strict ethical guidelines. first, stem cells must come from embryos that would otherwise be 11:33:48.4 discarded. there are more than 400,000 embryos right now in the united states left over from fertility treatments that are currently sitting frozen in liquid nitrogen in storage, 400,000. the contributors of those 11:34:05.9 embryos, the parents, the moms and dads have had all the children they want. they no longer need any more of their embryos. so what happens to them? under the policy we have now, there's only two things. you can keep them frozen for the next 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 11:34:22.6 years or however long, or you discard them. and that's what's happening every day at in vitro fertilization clinics across the country. embryos are being discarded as hospital waste. 11:34:40.4 now, you might be a couple that says, well, gee, you know, we've had all our children, we don't want any more and we don't really want to keep paying forever and ever to have them frozen, we would like to donate them to stem cell research maybe 11:34:55.7 to help some young person with -- with juvenile diabetes, maybe, or someone with a spinal cord injury. we would like to do that. we would like to contribute those embryos for that kind of stem cell research. 11:35:11.7 you can't do it today. can't do it. it would seem to me that at least we ought to allow couples to donate them if they wish. so the real question is throw 11:35:27.0 them away or use them to ease suffering? throw them or allow them to be used with these strict ethical guidelines. well, i think it's the second choice that's the truly moral and truly respectful of human life. 11:35:42.4 you might even think about it this way: people say, well, embryos will be destroyed. the embryo itself, which, by the way, i keep pointing out to people, there's a lot of 11:35:59.1 misconception that's gone on -- i didn't listen to it, but i read the debate in the house last year. and one of the speakers, i think he was the former minority leader, mr. delay, went on talking about fetuses, about the protection of fetuses. and a lot of times people get the idea that we're talking 11:36:16.1 about fetuses. we're not. we're talking about embryos. i always put a little do the on a piece of paper and say can anyone see what i put on that piece of paper? that's just how big an embryo is. it contains a few dozen cells. well, so we've got to get over 11:36:35.0 this idea that somehow it's a fully formed fetus existing in a womb. that's not it at all. so you think of an embryo and you say well, it's alive. ok, it's got life, yes, it does. you shouldn't destroy that life. 11:36:52.1 well, you might destroy the embryo itself, but in taking the 11:36:57.7 stem cells out it's the cells that are in the embryo that give the embryo life. so if you take those cells out and you propagate them and you examine them and then maybe use those stem cell lines for curing 11:37:12.0 diseases in the future, it seems to me that you're really propagating life, you're saving lives, you're enhancing life by doing that. so that's why i think that giving people the choice of 11:37:28.9 voluntarily contributing them is the truly moral and respectful of human life. now, the second ethical requirement in s. 5 is that couples have to provide written informed consent, written 11:37:48.6 informed consent. now, i might point out that some of the 21 federally-approved lines that are now in existence, especially the ones from other countries, don't immediate that requirement. 11:38:02.9 so we need to pass s. 5 to tighten the ethical guidelines on stem cell research so there's no question that the embryos were donated properly. so think of it this way: we have federal money right now that could be going -- that probably 11:38:17.1 is going for research on some stem cells that were provided without written informed consent. well, we need to tighten down on that, and that's what s. 5 does. now you'll hear a lot of talk 11:38:32.5 about -- and i read the debates of last year here on the floor of the senate, debates in the house, a lot of talk about setting up embryo farms. we're not going to have embryo farming so that women will have -- take their eggs, they'll 11:38:49.8 connect a sperm, they'll create the embryos and they'll embryo farms, i've heard that a number of times. well, s. 5, our bill, prohibits women from being paid to donate, to donate embryos. 11:39:04.1 there's no chance under this bill that women could be exploited to go through the donation process against their will. now, i want to point out that under our bill, couples can't receive money or other inducements to donate embryos. under the present guidelines 11:39:21.6 that now exist from the white house, it just says you can't receive money. well, there might be other inducements that might be provided to you to get you to donate them. 11:39:34.5 we want to cut all that off. we want to say it has to be purely voluntary. purely voluntary. you can't receive money or any other inducement. you must have written informed consent, and it can only come from embryos that would otherwise be discarded. very strict ethical guidelines. 11:39:56.1 so again, this year's bill, s. 5, has one significant change from last year's bill that we passed, and we passed that bill overwhelmingly here, 63 votes, 11:40:11.6 but this bill has one difference. it now includes the text of last year's specter-santorum bill, which passed the senate unanimously but got tied up in the house and died at the end of the 109th congress. that bill, which president bush 11:40:26.3 strongly endorsed, encouraged n.i.h. to pursue alternative ways of deriving stem cells in addition to our current method. as i've made clear, going clear back to december of 1998, i support any ethical means to 11:40:43.6 improve the lives of human beings who are suffering, so that we should open every door we can in the support and the pursuit of cures. so what we've done in the new version of s. 5 is combine the 11:40:59.0 two bills that the senate passed overwhelmingly last year, but did not become law, that was h.r. 810, and the specter-santorum bill. so by voting for s. 5, s. 5, the bill before us now, snoorps can show that they -- senators can show that they support all forms 11:41:14.6 of stem cell research. now, again, the specter-santorum bill just says open it up, find out all other alternative forms of stem cell research. that's fine. that would be amniotic, placental stem cells, adult stem cells, whatever. 11:41:32.5 i have no problem with that. in fact, i think we ought to pursue all of them, but that's the key difference now between s. 5 and s. 30. now, that's the other bill that we'll vote on tomorrow night, s. 11:41:48.6 30. s. 30 puts all its hopes and theories, alternative ways of 11:41:54.8 derising stem cells that might work or might not -- deriving stem cells that might work or might not, at this point, no one knows. now, we do know how to derive stem cells, we do know how to propagate them. 11:42:07.4 already research in some other countries and private research has already led to stem cells developing into nerve cells and things like that. but we don't know about what s. 30 does. s. 30 says to scientists -- that's the other bill that's before us -- it says, don't use 11:42:24.4 any of the 400 existing stem cell lines already derived. instead, put all your effort in figuring out some new way of derising stem cells that might take -- deriving stem cells that might take 10 years to pan out or even more, or maybe even not 11:42:40.6 at all. for example, the proponents of s. 30 will talk a lot over the next -- today and tomorrow about stem cells that could allegedly be derived from quote, "dead embryos," embryos that aren't 11:42:56.8 healthy and have stopped growing. i've got to tell you, the idea that we could cure juvenile diabetes, a.l.s. and, parkinson's with something called dead embryos doesn't 11:43:09.7 exactly inspire me with a lot of confidence. think about it. if you were treating someone with embryonic stem cells, would you rather use stem cells that came from a healthy embryo, healthy, vibrant, growing, or would you rather have them coming from a dead embryo? just ask yourself that simple 11:43:26.2 question. now, the dead embryo died for a reason. there was something wrong with it. chances are the stem cells that come from that dead embryo aren't so great either. so why does anyone think a dead embryo holds the secret to curing a.l.s. or juvenile 11:43:42.3 diabetes? s. 5, our bill, by contrast would immediately make those hundreds of new lines eligible for federal research, again, as long as they were derived under the strict ethical guidelines that we have in our bill. 11:44:00.8 so s. 30, the other bill, that might not do any harm, but i don't think it does any good either. again, it's why we have to keep our focus on s. 5. and if this year's debate goes like last year's, we'll expect 11:44:16.1 opponents of our bill to make a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. and i'll listen closely and i'll try to correct those -- those mistakes that people might make about adult stem cells. 11:44:30.3 there's a lot of stuff out there, but our committee has looked at this and we've had a lot of testimony from a lot of scientists at n.i.h. so there will be a lot of unfounded claims about adult stem cells. now, as i have said for the last several years, i'm all for adult stem cell research and use. 11:44:49.0 adult stem cells are already being used successfully in treating several blood-related diseases, and that's great. i'm all for it. and let's continue this area of research. but as we now know, and as 11:45:05.1 scientists tell us, adult stem cells have limits. they can't do everything that embryonic stem cells can do. so, again, don't take my word for it. listen to what dr. zerhouni, the nation's highest ranking medical 11:45:21.8 researcher, has to say about adult stem cells. and this is what he said before our committee. he said "the presentations about adult stem cells having as much or more potential than embryonic stem cells, in my view, do not hold scientific water. 11:45:38.7 i think they are overstated. my point of view is that all angles in stem cell research should be pursued." and that's what s. 5 will allow us to do.xmost people couldn't s which cells were developed to 11:45:56.3 create a cure. they just want a cure. so i say let's examine them all. and i might add, by the way, s. 30, the other bill that we'll be debating here that focuses on derifling stem cells from naturally dead embryos, that can 11:46:12.6 be done under s. 5 also. or under the bill -- the addition. specter-santorum bill. s. 5, our bill, says we'll open 11:46:29.9 up the 400 lines as loaning as they meet the ethical guidelines that we've established. we'll open them up for federally funded ref and everything else, too. they can look at stem cells from naturally dead embryos. they can look at them from adult stem cells or placental or 11:46:46.7 amniotic fluid or umbilical cord, whatever. look at them all. 11:46:52.9 as long as they meet ethical guidelines. lastly, mr. president, we talk all about research and about science and about stem cells and using all the quotes from scientists, everything. what it's really about, it's 11:47:09.2 about giving hope to people. it's about health. it's about helping people who have devastating, devastating illnesses. this is a picture of carly from ankony, iowa. 11:47:28.0 carly is one of the millions of americans whose hopes depend on stem cell research. i just met carly for the first time last fall with her mother, her sisters. she just celebrated her 12th birthday, and she has type-1 11:47:45.7 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. well, when people have this disease, their body stops making insulin. so they have to inject it either through needles or pumps. 11:47:57.6 so here is a picture of carly, age 12, ancony, iowa, with one month's supply of needles. look at them. one month. you just ask yourself, how would you like to give yourself four shots a day, age 12? 11:48:17.8 imagine that, four times a day. as carly said, she never gets a vacation from juvenile diabetes. it is with her wherever she goes, at home, at school, on field trirngs holidays. 11:48:30.6 she told me that my dream is that one day we'll find a cure for juvenile diabetes. if adult stem cells could bring her a cure, she'd gladly take it. but scientists have known about adult stem cells for 40 years 11:48:47.3 and they still haven't provided the answer for juvenile diabetes. we can't keep telling people like carly, embryonic stem cells might bring you a cure but sorry the federal government is not interested. our premier institution, n.i.h., can't be involved. 11:49:04.9 we can't keep telling the millions of americans who have parkinson's and a.l.s. and spinal card injure ritz, so, we know that embryonic stem cell research might ease your suffering but we'd rather do nothing about it. 11:49:19.0 now is our chance to change that. i urge senators to think about carly and all the people in their lives who could benefit from stem cell research and vote "yes" emphatically on s. 5 tomorrow. 11:49:36.9 mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend -- and i say again, the person who started all of our hearings on this in december of 1998, the chairmanship of senator specter, 11:49:52.3 our committee had the first hearing on embryonic stem cells one month after they were derived. there hasn't been a more stalwart, informed person in either body here on the hill about embryonic stem cell 11:50:08.7 research than senator specter. mr. specter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the chair recognizes the senator from pennsylvania. mr. specter: parliamentary inquiry. is it correct that i have 20 minutes allocated at this time? mr. president, i thank my 11:50:24.7 distinguished colleague, senator harkin, for his leadership on this very important issue. i thank him for his very generous comments, and it is true that he and i have worked together on the subcommittee of labor, health, human services, 11:50:41.2 and education for more than 20 years. he now chairs the subcommittee, and i am ranking, and in the past i have chaired it and he has been ranking. we have very close bipartisan cooperation, as we frequently say, there has been a seamless 11:50:57.4 transfer of the gavel, looking out for the interests of the american people. senator harkin accurately notes that when stem cells first burst upon the american scene in november of 1998, our subcommittee moved immediately. 11:51:14.2 it was actually december 2 of 1998. we have since had a total of 20 hearings on this important subject. and today i am speaking for 110 million americans who suffer 11:51:30.7 directly or indirectly, personal little or through their families, loved ones, from debilitating diseases such as parkinson's, alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and i also 11:51:45.7 speak for myself. in 1970, president nixon declared war on cancer and had 11:51:54.0 that war been prosecuted with the same diligence of other wars, my former chief of staff carey lackland, a beautiful young woman of 48, would not have died of breast cancer, one 11:52:08.5 of my very best friends, a very distinguished federal judge, edward r. becker, would not have died of prostate cancer; and all of us know people who have been stricken by cancer who have been incapacitated with parkinson's 11:52:26.3 or alzheimer's, who have been victims of heart disease or many other maladies. we now have an opportunity with the breakthrough on stem cell research 10 to have the 11:52:39.5 potential of curing these maladies. i sustained an episode with hodgkin's lymphoma cancer two years ago and that trauma and that illness, i think, could have been prevented had that war 11:52:56.7 on cancer declared by the president of the united states in 1970 been prosecuted with sufficient intensity. well, we now know about stem cells. we now know from the leading 11:53:11.2 scientists of the united states and the leading scientists of the world the potential of stem cells to deal with the dreaded maladies. the leader of the national institutes of health, 11:53:26.4 dr. zerhouni, has said, "imrek stem cell research holds great-- --embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, imriewflg our understanding of disease and well asvealing important basic mechanisms involved in stem cell 11:53:43.0 differentiation and development." i now ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to introduce to the record at the conclusion of my remarks the testimonials from the directors of the national 11:54:00.3 institutes of health, who have spoken out vigorously in support of embryonic stem cell research. the presiding officer: without objection, they will be includedin the record. mr. specter: there are some 400,000 of these embryos which 11:54:16.0 have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarted carded. embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. a few of them are used and the others are frozen. 11:54:31.8 and if any of these embryonic stem cells could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research, but they will not be used to produce life. 11:54:46.6 our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. as of april 5 of this year, the night life christian adoption 11:55:04.6 service report that embryo adoption has resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children and 20 babies are currently due. so it is obvious on these statistics that we have enormous 11:55:22.5 resources available to be used for scientific research without in any way impacting on limiting any lifestyle. i have in my hand, 11:55:37.2 mr. president, an hourglass. this hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named jim cordy, who suffers from parkinson's in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and when i was in 11:55:54.0 pittsburgh years ago, jim cordy approached me with an hourglass and he said, senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. 11:56:11.8 and there is the potential for curing parkinson's andz you ought to be doing something about it. well, we have tried mightily. senator harkin, senator kennedy, senator hatch, senator smith, 11:56:28.3 senator feinstein, many of us have tried mightily. last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would liberate the use of federal funds for research, and i think it important to note, 11:56:42.5 mr. president, that the federal funds will not be used to kill embryos but would be used to conduct research on 400 existing 11:56:53.3 lines. but that bill, as we all know, was vetoed. the senate passed the bill by 63 votes. i believe it is accurate to say there are more than 63 affirmative votes in the senate 11:57:08.1 today. whether there are 67 remains to be seen. i think it is also accurate to say that in the house of representatives we're not close to a veto override based upon the votes in the house of 11:57:26.5 representatives last year. but we're not too far -- we're not too far away either. and it is my view that if we had sufficient mobilization of public opinion, with that public 11:57:41.0 opinion and that political pressure, which is the appropriate process in a democracy, could provide enough votes for an override. as i see it, it is not a matter of whether there will be federal 11:57:57.2 funding for embryonic stem cell research but when that federal funding will be present. and the longer it is delayed, the more people will suffer and die from these maladies. 11:58:15.3 i have encouraged the groups which come to washington in large numbers to stage a massive march on the mall. if we put a million people on the mall, they would be within

5540 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC RNC CLEAN POOL 08262020 210000 2020 ***DO NOT EDIT OR MODIFY THIS DOC IN ANY WAY. ONLY LOGGERS ARE PERMITTED. WEDNESDAY AUGUST 26 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION FULL LOG 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 203006 VO>> Long before the shots fired at Concord, were men and women of remarkable character and fortitude. An extraordinary spirit fueled the dreams they held. That spirit lived on to win liberty in the Revolution, embolden the underground railroads. It strengthened the brave souls at Normandy. 230032 It endured with those who gallantly fought the spread of communism. And on 9/11, that same spirit was found in the men and women storming the gates of death to save precious lives. The spirit of heroism thrives in the presence of tyranny, disaster. It is stronger than any virus. 203058 Yet there are those who condemn our heroes, seek to erase history, deconstruct the American ideals, remake America into something it was never intended to be. But the spirit of heroism stands in the breach. It lives in the heart. It breathes in the soul. And is woven into the courageous fabric of Americans like you. It preserves liberty. It strengthens families. It empowers the extraordinary. 203132 The spirit of heroism inspires us to act when others are in need, to do the right thing. Join us tonight. Dream heroic dreams. Celebrate America, land of the free, home of the brave. 203200 >> From Washington D.C., welcome to the 2020 Republican National Convention. Tonight, celebrating America as the land of heroes. 203225 >> Lord, almighty god, we come before you this evening and pray for your divine protection over our brothers and sisters in the path of storms along our Gulf Coast. You are our rock and our shelter, in the midst of the storms of life. You are the god who commands the winds and the waves, and we pray that He will provide refuge to our people. 203252 Oh, lord, you have granted us certain natural rights such as the right to speak freely, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness as well as religious freedom, the right to assemble and the right to self-defense. Only in America have these god-given rights so flourished and been categorized as belonging to the people, embodying the very essence of our government. 223322 Father, we pray that this outlook and mindset, this form of government continues, as has been our history, especially now when, to our horror, it is being challenged. And so, we pray that god give strength and health to our President who has splendidly demonstrated daily his determination to defend and maintain the god-given rights of our citizens, as enshrined in our constitution and in our declaration. 203356 [And] eloquently passed down through our Judeoo-Christian tradition. President Trump has stood up fearlessly against those corrupting the term "social justice," so as to deny Americans their birthright and these divine gifts. 203413 May god protect him. May god bless all those in government and among our citizens who seek to honor, defend, and preserve our heritage. This land was founded in an epic and providential moment. Like the revelation at sinai, it was the moment when the vision of god rendezvoused with the soaring and noble plans of appointed men. Yet every so often, apace various generations, we are compelled to resurrect and give rebirth to our providential beginning, to renew our present days with the exuberance of those founding days. 203501 Perhaps that is what is meant when you say make America great again. We pledge to viginantly protect and tend the garden so as to imbibe its blessed fruits. May god continue to make America great and may we continue to be his people, one nation, under god, and let us say amen. 203530 >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands. One nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. KRISTI NOEM 203557 NOEM>> Good evening. I'm governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota. I'm here tonight because I believe America is an exceptional nation, founded on three principles: equality, freedom, and opportunity. But today, our founding principles are under attack. This year the choice for Americans is between a man who values these ideals, and all that can be built because of them, and a man who isn't guided by these ideals and coincidentally has built nothing. 203628 Remember, America's battle for Independence and fight for self governance was something that had never been done before. Men of great intellect and wisdom like James Madison, the father of our constitution, hoped our constitutional republic would last for ages, mitigate the problems that would naturally arise from political factions, and prevent tyranny. Madison also authored much of the bill of rights. 203653 Because he understood the natural tendency of government to increasingly encroach on the people's consent, and thus, our freedom. He urged his colleagues to adopt these amendments to enshrine in our Constitution the ideals laid out in the declaration of Independence, that all power comes from the people. That the government is created and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people. Our constitution guarantees the right to speak, to assemble, and to worship. 203725 The right to arm ourselves as a counterbalance to a standing army. And the right to a fair and equitable criminal justice system. We must fight to protect these foundational rights from government interference and indifference. America is unique in the world. Government's power at all levels is limited to the confines of our constitution, which protects our god-given liberties and civil rights. We are not and will not be the subjects of an elite class of so-called experts. 203759 We, the people, are the government. Now at times our country has struggled to live up to our founding principles. Another great American, Abraham Lincoln, knew that struggle better than anybody. When he was just 28 years old, honest Abe saw wild and furious passions worse than savage mobs, he said, taking the place of reason and judgment. He was alarmed by the increasing disregard for the rule of law throughout the country. He was concerned for the people that had seen their property destroyed, their families attacked, and their lives threatened or even taken away. 203837 These good people were becoming tired of and disgusted with a government that offered no protection. Sound familiar? It took 244 years to build this great nation, flaws and all. But we stand to lose it in a tiny fraction of that time, if we continue down the path taken by the Democrats and their radical supporters. From Seattle and Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs. 203910 The violence is rampant. There's looting, chaos, destruction, and murder. People that can afford to flee have fled but the people that can't, good hard-working Americans, are left to fend for themselves. The Republican party's commitment to individual rights and self government is as necessary today as it was in 1860, when we won our first presidential election. 203937 Our party respects individuals based on who they are. We don't divide people based on their belief or their roots. We don't shun people who think for themselves. We respect everyone, equally, under the constitution, and we treat them as Martin Luther King Jr. wished, according to the content of their character, not the color of their skin. 204001 In just four years, President Trump has lifted people of all races and backgrounds out of poverty. He shrunk government. He put money back into the pockets of hard-working, ordinary Americans. He has advanced religious liberty, he protected the second amendment. You can look back 50 years, you won't find anyone that has surpassed President Trump's success on these four issues alone. 204027 History chooses its heros for the time in which they live. At our founding, Madison was one of the chosen. When the nation's very existence was challenged it was Lincoln's turn. Thanks to these men, America is a land of hope. Their examples have been repeated in countless ways by simple Americans following their conscience. But there is another American hero to be recognized. And that is the common American. 204057 This is who president Trump is fighting for. He's fighting for you. SCOTT DANE 204121 DANE>> I'm Scott Dane. I represent loggers and truckers in Minnesota, but I also represent a way of life. Logging's been a part of the great American story from the beginning. In fact. if you go to the capitol rotunda and look up, you can see loggers on one of the panels -- New England settlers carving out a new world from the wilderness. Logging is the most dangerous job in the country, but we embrace that risk because we know America was built by strong people, building things together. America needs us to keep building and we can't wait to be a part of it. 204157 But the last time Joe Biden was in the white house, Minnesota lost nearly half of its mills, thousands of jobs, and experienced nearly a decade of decline. It was a similar story in other parts of the country. The administration just didn't seem to care, and 47 years in Washington, Joe Biden hasn't done anything for the timber industry. When plants close in Duluth, Sartel, Cook, and Bemidji, they were just numbers on paper to the Obama-Biden administration. To me they were people and jobs and families. 204233 Under obama-biden, radical environmentalists were allowed to kill the forest. Wildfire after wildfire shows the consequences. Managed forests, the kind my people work in, are healthy forests. Under president trump, we've seen a new recognition of the value of forest management in reducing wildfires. And we've seen new support for our way of life where a strong back and a strong work ethic can build a strong middle class. 204258 We want to build families where we were raised and stand by communities that stood by us. We want that way of life available for the next generation and we want our forests there, too. President Trump, thank you for helping us do just that. MARSHA BLACKBURN 204335 BLACKBURN>> Hi, I'm US Senator Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee. America is a nation of heroes. In times of difficulty, we're reminded that they're all around us. They're in the line with us at the grocery store, in the pew with us at church. They're the regular American who step up to volunteer and serve when we need them most. 204400 They've stood at the forefront throughout this pandemic. The emergency room nurses who go back shift after shift. 204411 The medical researchers developing a vaccine and therapies to combat what the Chinese communist regime unleashed on the world. Cookville's Double Strings Church of Christ members, lifting our country up in prayer and providing for those impacted by tragedy. But tonight, I want to talk to you about another kind of hero. The kind democrats don't recognize because they don't fit into their narrative. I'm talking about the heroes from law enforcement and armed services. 204453 Leftists turned them into villains. They want to cancel them. But I'm here to tell you, these heroes can't be cancelled. Tennessee is full of them. After all, we're the volunteer state. My dad served in the Army in World War 2. When he came home, he put on another uniform, and for 30 years, volunteered to help our under funded sheriff's department. I'm reminded of him whenever I see compassion and selflessness in others. 204530 When I see law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every single day to keep our community safe, in spite of the hatred thrown at them. When I see the heroes who volunteer to serve our country, putting their lives on the line for their freedom. Many of these heroes call Tennessee home and we could not be more proud of the brave men and women of the 101st airborne division at Fort Campbell. 204605 The common thread between them is a deep seeded desire to serve a cause larger than themselves. They don't believe their country owes them anything. They believe they owe their country and their fellow man. As hard as Democrats try, they can't cancel our heroes. They cannot contest their behavery and they can't dismiss the powerful sense of service that lives deep in their souls. 204643 So they try to defund them -- our military, our police, even ICE -- to take away their tools to keep us safe. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and their radical allies try to destroy these heroes because if there are no heroes to inspire us, government can control us. They close our churches, but keep the liquor stores and abortion clinics open. 204714 They say, we can't gather in community groups, but encourage protests, riots, and looting in the streets. If the Democrats had their way, they would keep you locked in your house until you become dependent on the government for everything. That sounds a lot like communist China to me. Maybe that's why Joe Biden is so soft on them, why Nancy Pelosi says that China would prefer Joe Biden. Yep. I bet they would. 204749 But, President Trump has stood up for our heroes every day. He stood by our law enforcement, our military, and the freedoms we hold dear. He's made good on his promise to put America first. And I hope you will stand with me as we send him back for four more years, with a clear message to the democrats, you will never cancel our heroes. DAN CRENSHAW 204828 CRENSHAW>>> Hi, I'm Congressman Dan Crenshaw. 8 years ago, in the fields of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, a close friend and teammate laid down cover fire against Taliban insurgents so that I could walk, blind and bloodied, to the Med-Evac helicopter, and survive. But he didn't. Dave Orson was killed 2 months later. 204848 He died a hero to this great country. Here's the truth about America: we are a country of heroes. I believe that. So should you. We are a people with a common set of ideals, conceived in liberty. People that have sacrificed, time and time again, for the freedom and freedom of others -- that's something that no country ever, anywhere can claim. 204911 Since 9/11, I've seen America's heroes up close. Some of them saved my life. Some of them saved many others lives. Many of them never made it home. These heroes act as if the whole struggle depended on them alone, as if any weakness on their part would be a reflection of the whole nation. That is called duty. 204930 And America has a long history of it. Our enemies fear us, because Americans can fight for good and we know it. It gives us strength. When our heroes are trusted and equipped, then freedom prevails. The defeat of ISIS was the result of America believing in our heroes. Our president having their backs and rebuilding our military so we'd have what we needed to finish the mission. 204955 The cowering of the Iranian regime and the restoration of the deterrence once lost is the result of America believing in her own might again. America's heroism isn't relegated to the battlefield. Every single day we see them, if you just know where to look. It's the nurse who volunteers for back-to-back shifts caring for covid patients because she feels that's her duty. It's the parent who will relearn algebra because there's no way they are letting their kids fall behind while schools are closed. 205023 And it's the cop that gets spit on one day and will saves a child's life the next. America is the country where the young military wife of two young children answers the unexpected knock at the door, looks the man in uniform in the eye and even as her whole world comes crashing down, she stands up straight, she holds back tears and takes care of her family because she must. 205048 This is what heroism looks like, it's who we are, a nation of heroes. And we need you now more than ever. We need to remind ourselves what heroism really is. Heroism is self-sacrifice. It's not moralizing and lecturing over others when they disagree. Heroism is grace, not perpetual outrage. Heroism is rebuilding our communities, not destroying them. 205115 Heroism is renewing faith in the symbols that unite us, not tearing them down. See, America is a fabric. It's woven from the threads of history's best stories, best attributes, and greatest ideas. The American spirit reflects the oldest and most important virtues: self sacrifice, courage, tolerance, love of country, grace, and passion for human achievement. 205136 We can decide, right now, that American greatness will not be rejected nor squandered. As the American founding was grounded in individual liberty, so will be our future. But if we are to rediscover our strength, then it must be an endeavor undertaken by each and every one of us. We must become the heroes that we so admire. 205158 America was built by them, and our future will be protected by them. It will be protected by you. So, god bless America. GEN KEITH KELLOGG 205215 KELLOGG>> Good evening. I'm retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg. In 1967, at the age of 22, I volunteered to serve my country in Vietnam. From the jungles of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq, I have gone where my nation asked. I have borne witness to soldiers' last moments on Earth, their lives spent in hope and promise of a better future for all Americans. 205246 I was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. I lost friends there that day. In the years that followed, I watched my daughter, son, and son-in-law deploy to Afghanistan. I have looked into the eyes of my grandchildren as they said goodbye to their fathers and hugged them one last time. I lived (?) service. I understand sacrifice. I know leadership. 205315 Over the past 3 1/2 years, I have witnessed every major foreign policy and national security decision by the President. I have been in the room where it happened. I saw only one agenda and one guiding question, when tough calls had to be made: is this decision right for America? When President Donald Trump took office, decades of failed foreign policy had crippled us. 205347 He faced wars without end in sight, creation of failed states like Libya and Syria, a past that allowed a terrorist caliphate to grow, and leadership in Washington that allowed our military to atrophy, while we spent trillions of dollars abroad instead of investing at home. President Trump has reversed the decline of our military, and restructured our national security strategy. 205414 With historic investment and vision, our military is now better equipped, better resourced, and better manned than any military in the world. President Trump demolished the terrorist ISIS caliphate in the Middle East and eliminated its leader, Al baghdadi, one of the world's most brutal terrorists. President Trump took decisive action against Iranian terrorist mastermind, Qasem Soleimani, the man responsible for deaths of hundreds of American servicemen in Iraq. 205450 When our NATO allies failed to meet their commitments as we upheld ours, President Trump demanded parity. NATO members have now increased their contributions over $100 billion this year and NATO's Secretary General credits President Donald J. Trump. President Trump challenged and continues to challenge an ever-increasingly provocative and militant China. But make no mistake, President Trump is no hawk. 205521 He wisely wields the sword when required, but believes in seeking peace instead of perpetual conflict. Just over a week ago, our president brokered a peace agreement between the united Arab Emirates and Israel, the first in the Middle East in over 25 years. And this week, Afghan negotiators, with help from American officials, will start peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government to end America's longest war. 205558 Ask yourself: has this president kept his promises to keep us out of needless conflicts and to pursue ending wars without end? Has he defended your interests in renegotiating trade deals that previously hurt Americans and our national security? Has he fulfilled his commander in chief role by decisively going after the nation's enemies? You and I know the answer is yes. 205629 The choice is clear. This is the most important election of our lifetime. The next four years will decide the course of our country for decades to come. I am asking you to stand up and be counted so we never have to look back and recall what it was once like in America when men and women were free, our families were secure, and we had a president who served the people. 205701 God bless America. Thank you, and good night. TERA MEYERS 205730 MEYERS>> Good evening, my name is Tara Meyers. Tonight I am here as a wife and mother to share how education freedom has personally impacted my family, especially the life of my son Samuel. Before Samuel was even born, I was told his life wouldn't be worth living. When early tests revealed he had down syndrome, our doctor encouraged me to terminate the pregnancy. 205757 He said "if you do not, you will be burdening your life, your family and your community." I knew my baby was a human being created by god, and that made him worthy of life. I am thankful that president Trump values the life of the unborn. When we went to register samuel for kindergarten, we were told to just put him where he would be comfortable. Don't stress him out by trying to teach him. 205825 When we pushed for him to attend his neighborhood school with his sisters, we were told just go home and let us do what we do. When I inquired about functional learning, I was told, this is all you get, like it or not. Well, I did not like it. One size did not fit all. So I helped fight to pass legislation in Ohio, for a special needs scholarship, so that all students could choose the right program for their needs. 205857 I worked to start a new functional learning program at our local private school. Finally, Samuel had an appropriate place to learn. Last December, Samuel was invited to the White House to meet our president and share his thoughts on education freedom. He said, "school choice helped my dreams come true. My school taught me the way I learn best. I was able to fit in. I made many friends. I became a part of my community. My teachers helped me become the best I can be." President Trump shook my hand and said, wonderful job, mom. Your son is amazing. 205939 Unlike the doctor who told me to end Samuel's life before it even began. President trump did not dismiss my son. He showed Samuel he valued him and was proud of what he accomplished. President Trump gave Samuel an equal seat at the table. Tonight I would like to extend my thanks to president trump and his administration for their work toward making every student's dream of a meaningful education a reality. 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 210000 2020 210011 And for fighting to ensure every child in America has an equal seat at the table of education freedom and an equal opportunity in life. Thank you. And may god bless America. [RNC VIDEO "SUFFRAGE"] 210040 VO>> It all started at a tea party, 13 years before the American civil war. Civil unrest and division separated countrymen into two opposing camps: one determined to keep African-American people enslaved. The other, determined to see all people free. 210105 Elizabeth Katie Stanton and Lucretia Mott felt the call to fight for that freedom when they were selected as delegates for an anti slavery convention. But, upon arrival, were told they could not speak or vote at the male dominated event. On July 9, 1848, Mott, Stanton and three other women met for tea. 210127 By the end of the day, they had formed a coalition with the sole purpose of gaining the right for women to vote so they in turn would be free to fight for the freedoms of others. Women across America united and formed activist groups working tirelessly to win the vote for American women. The incomparable Susan B Anthony became one of the most visible leaders of women's suffrage when, in 1872, she registered and voted for every Republican on the ballot. 210158 As punishment for her actions, she was arrested for illegal voting at the request of Susan B. Anthony, Senator A.A. Sargent introduced the 19th amendment in 1878. The Susan B. Anthony Amendment was submitted and defeated five times. But, women continued to fight. Sojourner Truth and many other black suffragettes defied segregation, fighting for all women's voices to be heard and allowed to vote. 210223 For the two years prior to ratification, the silent sentinels quietly picketed the White House. Finally, when Republicans regained control of Congress, on August 26th, 1920, the Equal Suffrage Amendment was signed into law. Women's suffrage movement took 72 years and would change the lives of women forever. The victory was achieved peacefully through the valiant efforts of women patriots and the democratic process. 210252 100 years later in a bold declaration of rights for women, President Trump granted a full pardon to Susan B. Anthony on the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment's ratification. Women's suffrage was born from a desire to fight for the freedom of others. Now, we, the great patriots of America, will band together once again. And with one unified voice, we will vote for freedom. KAYLEIGH MCENANY 210330 MCENANY>> I'm Kayleigh Mcenany. You may know me as a supporter of President Trump. But tonight, I'm here to share with you how he supported me, both as a new mom and as an American with a pre-existing condition. When I was 21 years old, I got a call that changed my life. It was my doctor informing me that I had tested positive for the BRCA2 genetic mutation, a mutation that put my chances of breast cancer at 84%. 210403 It was the same mutation that my mom had, compelling her to get a preventive double mastectomy, removing her breast tissue but protecting her from a disease has taken far too many of our mothers, our sisters, our friends. In my family, eight women alone were diagnosed with breast cancer, several were in their young 20s. I now faced the same prospect. For nearly a decade, I was routinely at Moffitt Cancer Center, getting MRIs, ultrasounds, and necessary surveillance. 210443 During these visits, I cross pathed with brave women battling cancer and fighting through chemotherapy. They were a testament to American strength. They are American heroes. On May 1st, 2018, I followed in my mother's footsteps, choosing to get a preventive mastectomy. I was scared. The night before, I fought back tears as I prepared to lose a piece of myself forever. But the next day with my mom, dad, husband, and Jesus Christ by my side, I underwent a mastectomy, almost eliminating my chance of breast cancer. 210530 A decision I now celebrate. Breast reconstruction has advanced remarkably. While it is an individual's decision, my doctor and I chose a course of surgery that left me virtually unchanged. But more important than physical results, I developed a strength and a confidence that I carry with me. During one of my most difficult times, I expected to have the support of my family, but I had more support than I knew. As I came out of anesthesia, one of the first calls I received was from Ivanka Trump. 210607 As I recovered, my phone rang again. It was president Trump, calling to check on me. I was blown away. Here was the leader of the free world, caring about my circumstance. At the time, I had only met president Trump on a few occasions, but now I know him well. And I can tell you that this president stands by Americans with preexisting conditions. In fact, President Trump called me this morning, I spoke with him several times today, and he told me how proud he was of me for sharing this story. 210646 The same way president Trump has supported me, he supports you. I see it everyday. I've heard him say the hardest part of his job is writing to loved ones of fallen soldiers. I've seen him offer heartfelt outreach to grieving parents who lost their children to crime in the streets. And I have watched them fight for Americans who lost their jobs. President Trump fights for the American people, because he cares about stories like these. I have a nine-month-old daughter. She's a beautiful sweet little girl, and I choose to work for this president for her. 210735 When I look into my baby's eyes, I see a new life, amiracle for which I have a solemn responsibility to protect. That means protecting America's future, a future President Trump will fight for. Where our neighborhoods are protected. Where life is sacred. Where god is cherished, not taken out of our schools, removed from our pledge, and erased from our history. I want my daughter to grow up in President Donald J. Trump's America. 210804 Choosing to have a preventative mastectomy was the hardest decision I ever had to make. But supporting President Trump, who will protect my daughter and our children's future, was the easiest. KAREN PENCE 210851 KAREN PENCE>> Good evening. Karen Pence, my husband is Vice President Mike Pence. 100 years ago, today, the 19th amendment was adopted into the United States constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Because of heroes like Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone, women today -- like our daughters Audrey and Charlotte -- and future generations will have their voices heard and their votes count. 210921 The women's suffrage movement was the gateway that led to women having the opportunities to achieve monumental milestones and accomplish significant achievements in both civic and governmental roles. This evening, we look at heroes in our land. As Second Lady of the United States for the past three and a half years, I have had the honor of meeting many heroes across this great country. The Pences are a military family. 210955 Our son Michael serves in the United States Marines. And our son-in-law Henry serves in the US Navy. And one of my key initiatives is to elevate and encourage military spouses. These men and women like our daughter Charlotte and our daughter-in-law Sarah are the home front heroes. I have been privileged to hear so many stories of selfless support, volunteer spirit and great contributions to the armed forces and our communities. 211029 You know, military spouses may experience frequent moves and job changes, periods of being a single parent while their loved one is deployed, all while exhibiting pride, strength and determination and being a part of something bigger than themselves. To all of the military spouses, thank you. President Trump and Vice President Pence have been supporting our United States armed forces including our military families on a significant scale. 211103 While traveling throughout our nation to educate military spouses about policy solutions that President Trump has promoted involving real, tangible progress in military spouse employment, I have been inspired to meet heroes like Lisa Bradley and Cameron Cruz. 211126 These military spouses decided to start their own business R-Riveter, named after the Rosie the Riveter campaign used to recruit women workers during World War II. R-Riveter makes beautiful handbags designed and manufactured exclusively by military spouses. And many of those spouses live all over the country. They prepare and send their section of the bags to the company located in North Carolina where the final product is assembled. 211158 Military spouse hero Jilan Hall-Johnson in Billings, Montana, is a culinary artist who had dreamed of starting her own restaurant. Working with the small business administration's development center, Jilan started her restaurant, the Sassy Biscuit. 211218 And she just opened a second restaurant in Dover, New Hampshire. And as the second lady, I've also been able to bring awareness to a form of therapy for our heroic veterans suffering from PTSD. Art therapy facilitated by a professional art therapist is especially effective with posttraumatic stress disorder. Master gunnery sergeant Chris Stowe a marine veteran I met in Tampa, who deployed for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, said nothing had helped him deal with the trauma from his service in the Marines, until he finally agreed to meet with the art therapist at Walter Reed medical center 211305 Chris credits art therapy with saving his marriage and his life. And Chris went on to establish a glass blowing workshop to help other Vets. Many of our veteran heroes struggle as they transition back into civilian life. And, sometimes, the stress is too difficult to manage alone. A few weeks ago, I had the honor of speaking with some amazing Americans who answer the Veterans Crisis Line. 211335 One, in particular, Sydney Morgan, especially impacted me. A veteran herself, Sydney said, it is the highest honor of her life, until they physically walk into a clinic to receive help they deserve, and she can pass their hand to someone ready to help. 211358 In these difficult time, we've all seen so many examples of everyday Americans reaching out a hand to those in need. Those who, in humility, have considered others more important than themselves. We've seen health care workers, teachers, first responders, mental health providers, law enforcement officers, grocery and delivery workers and farmers. 211427 And so many others. Heroes, all. 100 years ago women secured the right to vote, so let's vote, America. Let's honor our heroes. Let's re-elect president trump and vice president pence for four more years. God bless our heroes, and god bless the United States of America. 211458 VO>> We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. KELLYANNE CONWAY 211517 CONWAY>> Good evening. I'm Kellyanne Conway. 100 years ago, courageous warriors helped women secure the right to vote. This has been a century worth celebrating, but also a reminder that our democracy is young and fragile. A woman in a leadership role can still seem novel. Not so for President Trump. For decades, he has elevated women to senior positions in business and in government. 211547 He confides in and consults us, respects our opinions, and insists that we are on equal footing with the men. President Trump helped me shatter a barrier in the world of politics by empowering me to manage his campaign to its successful conclusion.With the help of millions of Americans, our team defied the critics, the naysayers, the conventional wisdom and we won. For many of us, women's empowerment is not a slogan. 211617 It comes not from strangers on social media orr sanitized language in a corporate handbook. It comes from the everyday heroes who nurture us, who shape us, and who believe in us. I was raised in a household of all women. They were self-reliant and resilient. Their lives were not easy. But they never complained. Money was tight, but we had an abundance of what mattered most, family, faith and freedom. 211652 I learned that, in America, limited means does not make for limited dreams. The promise of America belongs to us all. This is a land of inventors and innovators, of entrepreneurs and educators, of pioneers and parents -- each contributing to the success and the future of a great nation and her people. These everyday heroes have a champion in President Trump. 211725 The teacher who took extra time to help students adjust to months of virtual learning. The nurse who finished a 12-hour COVID shift and then took a brief break only to change her mask, gown, and gloves to do it all over again. The small business owner striving to reopen after the lockdown was lifted and then again after her store was vandalized and looted. 211753 The single mom with two kids, two jobs, two commutes, who ten years after that empty promise, finally has health insurance. President Trump and vice president Pence have lifted Americans, provided them with dignity, opportunity and results. I have seen firsthand many times the president comforting and encouraging a child who has lost a parent, a parent who has lost a child, a worker who lost his job, an adolescent who lost her way to drugs. 211836 "Don't lose hope," he has told them, assuring them that they are not alone, and that they matter. There always will be people who have far more than us. Our responsibility is to focus on those who have far less than us. President Trump has done precisely that, in taking unprecedented action to combat this nation's drug crisis. 211903 He told me, this is so important, Kellyanne, so many lives have been ruined by addiction, and we'll never even know it, because people are ashamed to reach out for help, and they're not even sure who to turn to in their toughest hour. Rather than look the other way, President Trump stared directly at this drug crisis next door and through landmark bitarsian legislation has helped secure historic investments in surveillance, interdiction, education, prevention, treatment and recovery. 211936 We have a long way to go, but the political inertia that cost lives and the silence and the stigma that prevents people in need from coming forward is melting away. This is the man I know and the president we need for four more years. He picks the toughest fights and tackles the most complex problems. 212001 He has stood by me, and he will stand up for you. In honor of the women who empowered me and for the future of the children we all cherish, thank you and God bless you, always. DIDI BURN 212033 DIDI BURN>> Good evening. I'm sister Didi Burn and I belong to the community of the Little Workers of the Sacred Heart's of Jesus and Mary. Last 4th of July, I was honored to be one of the president's guests at his salute to America celebration. I must confess that I recently prayed while in chapel, begging God to allow me to be a voice and instrument for human life. And now, here I am, speaking at the Republican National Convention. I guess you better be careful for what you pray for. My journey towards religious life is not a traditional route, if there is such a thing. 212111 In 1978, as a medical stud-- school student at Georgetown University, I joined the Army to help pay for my tuition, and ended up devoting 29 years to the military, serving as a doctor and a surgeon in places like Afghanistan and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. After much prayer and contemplation, I entered my religious order in 2002, working to serve the poor and the sick in Haiti, Sudan, Kenya, Iraq, and in Washington, D.C. 212144 Humility is at the foundation of our order which makes it difficult to talk about myself, but I can speak about my experience working for those fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries all around the world. Those refugees all share a common experience. They have been all marginalized, viewed as insignificant, powerless and voiceless. And while we tend to think of the marginalized as living beyond our borders, the truth is the largest marginalized group in the world can be found here in the United States. 212220 They are the unborn. As Christians we first met Jesus as a stirring embryo in the womb of an unwed mother and saw him born nine months later in the poverty of a cave. It's no coincidence that Jesus stood up for what was just and ultimately crucified because what he said wasn't politically correct or fashionable. 212244 As followers of Christ, we are called to stand up for life against the politically correct or fashionable of today. We must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb. Keep in mind, the laws we create define how we see our humanity, and we must ask ourselves: what are we saying when we go into a womb and snuff out an innocent, powerless voice's life? 212315 As a physician, I can say without hesitation: life begins at conception. While what I have to say may be difficult for some to hear, I am saying it because I'm not just pro-life, I'm pro eternal life. And I want all of us to end up in heaven together some day. Which brings me to why I'm here today -- Donald Trump is the most pro-life President that this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages. 212345 His belief in the sanctity of life transcends politics. President Trump will stand up against Biden-Harris who are the most anti-life Presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late-term abortion and infanticide. Because of his courage and conviction, President Trump has earned the support of America's pro-life community. 212410 Moreover, he has a nation wide of religions standing behind him. You'll find us with our weapon of choice, the rosary. So thank you Mr. President, we are all praying for you. LOU HOLTZ 212429 HOLTZ>> I'm Lou Holtz. Many of you know me as Coach Holtz, or maybe that football guy. It is a pleasure, a blessing, and an honor, for me to explain why I believe that President Trump is a consistent winner, an outstanding leader, and deserves to be re-elected as our president. First, I want you to know that I grew up in a one-bedroom house in West Virginia. I may have been poor, but the lessons my parents taught me were priceless. 212500 They taught me that life is about making choices. Wherever you are, good or bad, don't blame anyone else. Go get an education, get to work. You can overcome any obstacles. And always remember, that in this great country of ours, anyone can amount to something special. I lived by those principles of hard work, and responsibility my whole life. 212526 Living out the the American story, and it works. But there are people today like politicians, professors, protesters, and of course president trump's nay-sayers in the media who like to blame others for problems. They don't have pride in our country. They make us say no longer ask, what can I do for my country? Only what the country should be doing for them. They don't have pride in themselves. That's wrong. 212600 When I was an officer in the army, I served with so many great Americans who embraced the responsibility to our country. I'm so proud of their sacrifices and the opportunity it has provided for so many millions. America remains a land of opportunity, no matter what the other side says or believes. You know, there's a statue of me at Notre Dame. I guess they needed a place for the pigeons to land. 212629 But if you look closely, you will see these three words there: trust, commitment, and love. All my life, I have made my choices based on these three words. I use these three rules to make choices about everything. My beloved wife of 59 years, athletes I coached, and of course, politicians. Even President Trump. I ask myself three things. 212657 One, can I trust them? When a leader tells you something, you gotta be able to count on it. That is President Trump. He says what he means, he means what he says, and he's done what he said he would do at every single turn. One of the important reasons he has my trust is because nobody has been a stronger advocate for the unborn than President Trump. 212723 The Biden-Harris ticket is the most radically pro-abortion campaign in history. They and other politicians are Catholic in name only, and abandoned innocent lives. 212737 President Trump protects those lives. I trust President Trump. The second question I ask is are they committed to doing their very best? President Trump always finds a way to get something done. If you want to do something bad enough, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse. And excuses are a lot easier to find than solutions. 212805 President Trump finds solutions, president trump is committed. The third question I ask is do they love people? Do they care about others? To me this is very clear. President trump has demonstrated through his prison reform, advocating for school choice, and welfare reform. He wants Americans from all walks of life to have the opportunity to succeed and live the American dream. President trump loves our country and our great people. Trust, commitment, and love. In President trump we have a president we can trust, who works hard at making America greater. 212850 And who genuinely cares about people. If I apply this test to Joe Biden, I can't say yes to any of these three questions. I used to ask our athletes at notre dame "if you did not show up, who would miss you and why?" Can you imagine what would happen to us if president trump had not shown up in 2016 to run for president? I'm so glad he showed up. 212919 Thank you for showing up, Mr. President. I encourage everyone who loves this country, who loves America, to show up in November for President Trump. Thank you. MICHAEL MCHALE 212938 MCHALE>> Hi, I'm Michael McHale, but my friends call me "Mick." I'm a 30 active duty member of law enforcement in the state of Florida. I am also the president of the national association of police organizations, NAPO. Our organization recently endorsed Donald Trump for re-election as President of the United States. Our endorsement recognized his strong support for the men and women on the front lines, particularly during these challenging times. 213010 We value his support of aggressive prosecution of those who attack our police officers. His signing of the law enforcement mental health and wellness act and his support for permanently authorizing funds to support 9/11 first responders and their families. Law enforcement officers across the nation take an oath to run towards danger when everyone else is running away. They do so willingly to protect our families and communities. 213046 I'm proud that the overwhelming majority of American police officers are the best of the best and put their lives on the line without hesitation. And good officers need to know their elected leaders, and the department brass, have their backs. Unfortunately, chaos results when failed officials in cities like Portland, Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York make the conscious decision not to support law enforcement. 213120 Shootings, murders, looting, rioting occur unabated. The violence and bloodshed we are seeing in these and other cities isn't happening by chance. 213132 It's the direct result of refusing to allow law enforcement to protect our communities. Joe Biden has turned his candidacy over to the far Left, anti-law enforcement radicals. And as a Senator, Kamala Harris pushed to further restrict police, cut their training, and make our American communities and streets even more dangerous than they already are. 213202 Conversely, President Trump supports the creation of a national standard for training on deescalation and communication to give officers more tools to resolve conflict without violence. The differences between Trump-Pence and Biden-Harris are crystal clear. Your choices are the most pro law enforcement president we've ever had, or the most radical anti-police ticket in history. 213239 We invite those who value the safety of their family and loved ones to join the hundreds of thousands of members of the national association of police organizations and support the re-election of president Donald J. Trump. Thank you and god bless America. ELISE STEFANIK 213315 STEFANIK>> I'm Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, and I'm honored to represent New York's 21st Congressional District, the cradle of the American revolution. It's where, almost 250 years ago, brave patriots fought in the battles of Saratoga to turn the tide of the revolutionary war. It's where, 40 years ago in Lake Placid, a team of amateur hockey players out hustled, outskated, and defeated the Soviet Union, stunning the world and giving up the unforgettable miracle on ice. 213349 And today, it's home to fort Drumm and the historic tenth mountain division, the most deployed unit in the U.S. army since 9/11, where I saw first hand president trump graciously thank and honor our men and women in uniform and sign the largest pay raise for our troops in a decade. 213406 Since our nation's founding generation after generation of everyday Americans served and sacrificed to preserve and strengthen the American dream. The vision of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and the idea that if you work hard and dream big, you can achieve anything you imagine. I believe in the American dream because I've lived it. Like millions of Americans, I grew up in a small business family where I learned the values of hard work and determination. 213441 I was the first person in my immediate family to graduate from college, ran for Congress to serve upstate New York, and am proudly the youngest Republican woman elected to Congress in history. I am honored to support President Trump for re-election because I know that he is the only candidate who will stand up for hard working families and protect the American dream for future generations. 213509 Since his first day in office, President Trump has fought tirelessly to deliver results for all Americans, despite the Democrats' baseless and illegal impeachment sham and the media's endless obsession with it. 213523 I was proud to lead the effort standing up for the constitution, President trump, and most importantly the American people. This attack was not just on the president. It was an attack on you, your voice and your vote. But the American people were not swayed by these partisan attacks. Our support for president trump is stronger than ever before. 213547 We know what's at stake in this historic election. Americans from all walks of life are unified in support of our president. It's why more Republican women than ever are running for office this year. We understand that this election is a choice between the far left democratic socialist agenda versus protecting and preserving the American dream. President Trump is working to safely reopen our main street economy. 213617 He understands that the engine of our country is fuelled by the ingenuity and determination of American workers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. Joe Biden wants to keep them locked up in the basement and crush them with $4 trillion in new taxes. We face a critical choice. Joe Biden's far left failed policies of the past 47 years, or president Trump who will stand up for the American people and the constitution. 213649 I believe in the wisdom and spirit of the American people to elect the only candidate who is capable of protecting the American dream. President Donald J. Trump. Thank you to the north country for the opportunity to serve as your voice supporting his re-election. God bless the United States of America, the greatest country on Earth. MADISON CAWTHORN 213726 HAWTHORNE>> Good evening. I'm Madison Hawthorne, and I'm running to represent North Carolina's 11th Congressional District. This is a time of great adversity for our country, and I know something about adversity. At 18 years old, I was in a horrific car accident that's left me paralyzed from the waist down. Instantly, my hopes and dreams were seemingly destroyed. I was given a 1% chance of surviving. But thanks to the power of prayer, a very loving community and many skilled doctors, I made it. It took me over a year to recover. 213800 My first public outing in a wheelchair was to a professional baseball game. You know, before my accident I was 6'3". I stood out in a crowd. But as I wheeled through the stadium I felt invisible. At 20, I thought about giving up. However, I knew I could still make a difference. You know, my accident has given me new eyes to see and new ears to hear. God protected my mind and my ability to speak. So I say to people who feel forgotten, ignored and invisible, I see you. I hear you. 213835 At 20, I made a choice and 2020, our country has a choice. We can give up on the American idea or we can work together to make our imperfect union more perfect. I choose to fight for the future, to seize the high ground and retake the shining city on a hall. While the radical left wants to dismantle, defund and destroy, Republicans under president trump's leadership want to rebuild, restore and renew. 213905 I just turned 25. When I'm elected this November, I'll be the youngest member of Congress in over 200 years. And if you don't think young people can change the world, then you just don't know American history. George Washington was 21 when he received his first military commission. Abe Lincoln, 22, when he first ran for office. And my personal favorite, James Madison was just 25 years old when he signed the declaration of Independence. 213932 In times of peril, young people have stepped up and saved this country, abroad and at home. We held the line, scaled the cliffs, crossed oceans, liberated camps, and cracked codes. Yet today, political forces want to usher in the digital dark ages. A time of information without wisdom. And tribalism without truth. National leaders on the left have normalized emotion-based voting and radicalized identity politics that rejects Martin Luther King's dream. 214004 MLK's dream is our dream, for all Americans to be judged solely on their character. Millions of people risk their lives every year to come here, because they believe in the dream of MLK and the American dream. Join us as, we, the party of freedom, double down on ensuring the American dream for all people. We are committed to building a new town square. It welcomes all ideas and all people. 214031 Here we will have freedom of speech, not freedom from speech. To liberals, I say let's have a conversation. Be a true liberal, listen to other ideas and let the best one prevail. And to conservatives, I say let's define what we support and win the argument in areas like healthcare and on the environment. In this new town square, you don't have to apologize for your beliefs or cower to a mob. You can kneel before god but stand for our flag. 214103 The American idea my ancestors fought for during the revolutionary war, is just as exciting and revolutionary today as it was 250 years ago. I say to Americans who love our country, young and old, be a radical for freedom. Be a radical for liberty. 214123 [HAWTHORNE STANDS] And be a radical for our republic, for which I stand. One nation, under god, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you and may god bless America. JACK BREWER 214155 BREWER>> I'm Jack Brewer, a former 3 time NFL team captain, College professor, coach, husband, son and father. I'm also a lifelong Democrat, but I support Donald Trump. Let me be clear: I didn't come here for the popularity or the praise, the likes or the retweets. I'm here as a servant to god, a servant to the people of our nation and a servant to our president. 214223 I grew up in Grapevine, Texas, a town that my great grandfather was the first black man to settle, as a sharecropper in 1896. My early high school experience included fighting with skinheads and being the witness in an attempted murder trial after my friend shot a skinhead in self-defense. I remember my dad's bravery when he personally stood up against a KKK rally in my town. 214247 In my house, my father taught me to back down for no one. I know what racism looks like. I've seen it first hand. In America, it has no resemblance to president trump. And I'm fed up with the way he's portrayed in the media, who refuse to acknowledge what he's actually done for the Black community. 214306 It's confusing the minds of our innocent children. Before I left to come to deliver this message my energetic 8 year old son, Jackson, stopped me and said, "dad, can you please just tell everyone that all lives need to matter, and that god loves everyone?" In that moment, I realized that my 8-year-old had figured out what so many adults have seemed to forget. We are not as divided as our politics suggest. 214337 At some point for the sake of our children, the policies must take priority over the personalities. So because you have an issue with president trump's tone you are going to allow Biden and Harris to deny our underserved black and brown children school choice? Are we so offended by the president's campaign slogan, make America great again, we're going to ignore that Joe Biden and kamala Harris have collectively been responsible for locking up countless black men for nonviolent crimes. 214410 Are you going to allow the media to lie to you by falsely claiming that he said there are very fine white supremacists in Charlottesville? That's a lie. And ignore the so-called black lives matter organization that openly, on their website, calls for the destruction of the nuclear family. My fellow Americans, our families need each other. We need black fathers in the homes with their wives and children. The future of our communities depends on it. 214443 I'm blessed to be able to run inner city youth programs and to also teach in prisons across America. The inmates in my federal prison program literally receive days off their sentence just for attending my class. And that's thanks to President Donald J. Trump and his First Step Act. President Trump cared about these Americans and their families, even when so many others had left them behind and had written them off. I'm forever grateful for President Trump for that. He endures relentless attacks and so do many of us, like myself, who support him. 214519 But my mama always told me when the lord starts blessing, the devil starts messing. This convention marks a time to celebrate our history. Republicans are the party that freed the slaves and the party that put the first Black men and women in congress. It's the party of Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. And now, Tim Scott and Donald Trump. Our president has made incredible strides to end mass incarceration and give unprecedented opportunities for Black [people], in America, to rise. 214554 America, let this election be a call for all god's people who are called by His name to humble ourselves and pray together, and to seek his face and to turn from our wicked ways. Then he will hear us from heaven and he will forgive our sins and he will heal our land. Amen, and god bless America. CHEN GUANGCHENG 214644 GUANGCHENG>> Greetings. My name is Chen Guangcheng. Standing up to tyranny is not easy. I know. When I spoke out against China's one child policy, and other injustices, I was prosecuted, beaten, sent to prison and put under house arrest by the Chinese communist party, the CCP. 214717 In April 2005 I escaped and was given shelter in the American embassy in beijing. I'm forever grateful to the American people for bringing me and my family to the United States where we are now free. CCP is an enemy of humanity. 214750 It is terrorizing its own people, and it is threatening the well being of the world. In China, expressing belief or ideas not approved by the CCP -- religion, democracy, human rights -- can lead to prison. 214818 The nation lies (?) under mass surveillance and censorship. The U.S. must use its values of freedom, democracy, and the role of law to gather a coalition of other democracies to stop CCP's aggression. President Trump has led on this, and we need the other countries to join him in this fight. 214856 A fight for our future. Standing up to fight and fairness isn't easy. I know. So does President Trump. But he has shown the courage to lead that fight. We need to support, vote, and fight for President Trump for the sake of the world. Thank you. LEE ZELDIN 214936 ZELDIN>> I'm congressman Lee zeldin. Tonight, as we celebrate America as a land of heros I'm here at a VFW post of heros in west Hampton beach, New York. I've seen amazing Americans in action, raised in a law enforcement family, deployed to Iraq as an 82nd airborne paratrooper and serving today in the army reserve. My generation, of post-9/11 veterans, has huge shoes to fill, following our greatest generation that fought tyranny, and saved the world. 215011 All over our country, everyday heroes serve and sacrifice for the greater good. Farmer, truckers, craftsmen, the heroes keep America running. Craftsmen and President trump fights for them every day. This year we have especially relied on one particular group of heroes, front line medical workers. My twin daughters, Michaela and Arianna, were born over 14 weeks early. They weighed just a pound and a half. At two weeks, Michaela went into septic shock, had a stroke, and underwent brain surgery leaving one-third of the left side of her brain a hole. 215054 Her doctors didn't believe Michaela would survive, fearing dire permanent consequences even if she did. Through the miracles of modern medicine, the power of prayer, and her will to live, my daughters are now starting high school and doing great, with no long-term effects from those frightful months in the NICU. So when I learned my county's PPE stockpile was depleted, I immediately thought of those healthcare workers who saved my baby girls. 215125 Jared Kushner and I were on the phone late into that Saturday night. The very next day, President Trump announced he was sending us 200,000 N-95 masks. He actually delivered almost 400,000. That number quickly grew to 1.2 million masks, gowns, and more. The President sent thousands of ventilators to New York. He deployed the USS Comfort and converted the Javits center to a field hospital. 215156 His administration authorized our lab testing requests at blinding speed. During a once in a century pandemic, an unforeseeable crisis sent to us from a far away land, the president's effort for New York was phenomenal. 215214 For our nation to emerge even stronger, more prosperous, freer, and more secure than ever; to make our country greater than ever before, we must re-elect president trump. We are the land of the free because of the brave. And we are the land of opportunity because we have a president who wants to empower the best of who we are to be the best of what we can be. 215241 There's never been a nation greater than ours. Never a people more resilient than ours. And never a future for America more promising than ours right now. Keeping America great is up to us. And losing is not an option. [RNC VIDEO] 215305 >> And I'm very proud, very proud to have President Trump in office here, because he's the best we've ever had. He's done the most for any president ever done. >> He's always there trying to take care of veterans, giving veterans what they need. >> The turnaround times have increased since Trump has taken over. >> You had to fight 15 years for benefits. But once he came into office, you had like 90 days, you turned your paperwork in, at least you had some kind of answer. 215330 >> I waited months for a signature on a piece of paper to get a prosthetic leg fixed. Now it's an a lot better turn around, but before it was a five-year waiting process to appeal. How long do we have to wait for benefits? 215344 >> I waited 20 years to file, rapidly was approved for medical, and then right -- turned right around and got disability. I was thinking it was going to be several years worth of waiting to hear. >> He's accomplished a lot in 3 1/2 years. And it helps the American people, and he has done a lot for veterans, for the middle class. >> I chose to serve my country. If I could do it, I would do it all over again, especially for this president. I mean, he's the kind of president you'd run through a brick wall if he asked you to. 215415 >> Went through many presidents but this one I can say is the best president we've ever had and ever will have, I believe. JONI ERNST 215434 ERNST>> Hello, everyone, and thank you for inviting me into your home this evening. It's truly a privilege. My name is Joni Ersnt. I was raised on a small family farm here in Iowa where I learned the importance of faith, hard work, and service. I worked my way through college, then dedicated my life to serving my country, as a local official, a battalion commander in the military, and as a U.S. Senator. Service, it's more than a word to me. It's a mission, a way of life. It's what brought me to cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2008 when I was in the National Guard. 215515 We saw historic floods that swept through the communities. We lent a helping hand to our fellow Iowans who were literally under water. We thought we had seen the worst, but 12 years later, these same communities have faced an even more devastating disaster, the recent Derecho storm. If you don't live in Iowa, you may not have heard much about it at first. While reporters here in the state were in the trenches covering the equivalent of a category 2 hurricane, most of the national media looked the other way. 215552 To them, Iowa is still just flyover country. Houses, farms were destroyed. About one third of our crops here were damaged. In some cases, these storms wiped out a lifetime of work. And yet, Iowa farmers didn't hesitate to grab their chainsaws and check on their neighbors. Our farmers live every day with that sense of service. The stewards of the land. The ones who feed and fuel the world. 215623 President trump quickly signed an emergency declaration for Iowa to provide relief. And of course when president trump came to Cedar Rapids, the national media finally did too. For years I've worked closely with the president for farmers in Iowa and across the country. We scrapped Obama and Biden's punishing waters of the United States rule which would have regulated about 97% of land in Iowa. 215652 In some cases, even puddles. It would have been a nightmare for farmers. The President delivered on major trade deals with Japan, and the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement. And he implemented the sale of E-15 fuel, year-round. That means more choices for you at the pump, and more jobs for farmers in the heartland. This is something the Obama-Biden administration failed to do in eight years. In fact, I can't recall an administration more hostile to farmers than Obama-Biden, unless you count the Biden-Harris ticket. 215731 The democratic party of Joe Biden is pushing this so-called green new deal. If given power, they would essentially ban animal agriculture and eliminate gas-powered cars. It would destroy the agriculture industry, not just here in Iowa, but throughout the country . When the pandemic hit president trump heard us and our call for assistance for our farmers. 215755 Knowing we have an ally in the white house is important. Folks, this election is a choice between two very different paths. Freedom, prosperity, and economic growth under a trump-pence administration. Or the biden-harris path, paved by liberal, coastal elites and radical environmentalists. And America, where farmers are punished, jobs are destroyed, and taxes crush the middle class. 215827 That is our choice and it's a clear one. Thank you. And god bless. BURGESS OWENS 215840 OWENS>> Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Burgess Owens. Shackled in the belly of a slave ship, an 8-year-old boy named (?) Burgess came to America to be sold on an auction block. By the grace of god and the courage of slaves who believed in freedom, (?) escaped through the underground railroad and settled in the great state of Texas. He wanted to become a successful entrepreneur. He built his community's first church, first elementary school, and purchased 102 acres of farmland which he paid off in two years. 215911 I'm here today, a candidate for Congress, because my great, great grandfather Salas Burgess. I was raised in the South during the days of Jim Crow and the KKK. He went through the challenges of segregation. We were taught that anything is possible in America. When I was 22 years old, I thought all my dreams would come true when I was drafted by the New York Jets. 10 years later, with a pro-Bowl nod and a Super Bowl championship under my belt, I left the NFL to start a business. 215941 I thought I could never fail, but years later, I did and I lost everything. As I moved my family of 6 into a one-bedroom, basement apartment in Brooklyn, New York, I had a choice to make: feel sorry for myself or get to work. I worked as a chimney sweep during the day and a security guard at night. It was humbling to be recognized cleaning a chimney by someone who has cheered me as an NFL fan but those hard days would pay off. Eventually, I started a career -- a rewarding career in the corporate world. 220013 We live in a country where we are encouraged to dream big. Second chances are at the core of our American DNA. We don't hear that same message from Nancy Pelosi's congress, career politicians, elitists and even a former bartender who want us to believe it's impossible. They want us to believe what I did, what my great-great grandfather did is impossible for ordinary americans. As patriots, we know better. This November we stand at a crossroads. Mobs torch our cities while popular members of congress promotes the same socialism that my father fought against in world war II. We have a democratic candidate for president who says that I'm not black if I don't vote for him. 220055 Now, more than ever, we need leaders who stand by their principles and won't compromise their values for political opportunities. Now, more than ever, we need leaders who will stand up to the lawlessness supported by the radical left. This November, we have an opportunity to reject the mob mentality, and once again be the America that my great-great grandfather believed in. During the Trump administration, business ownership among blacks, hispanics, and females have reached all time highs. 220125 Those same groups enjoyed record low unemployment and unprecedented prosperity. And we're just getting started. I ran for congress because we don't need more career politicians. We need a few more chimney sweeps. We need more leaders like president Trump, who understands the freedoms that make up the fabric of America. My fellow Americans, specifically my Democrat and Independent friends, it is now time for us to unite and put aside partisan barriers. Help us win back the House, keep the Senate, and give our president 4 more years. 220201 And I promise you, we will make you proud. Thank you, and God bless the United States of America. [RNC VIDEO] 220216 VO>> Standing guard over Baltimore Harbor is the remains of an Earthen star. A relic of time passed. It recalls a time when the spirit of liberty stirred in men of renown, who stood in the gap against the most powerful force in the world. 27 hours. One thousand men, low on ammunition, firing scrap metal. The battle raged. 220242 Insurmountable odds. A darkness fell upon this new nation. In the midst of the fight, the heroes of Fort McHenry were unmoved. The light of dawn overcame the darkness. The gallant flag hoisted above Fort McHenry, torn and battered, stood, victoriously observing a dejected enemy slowly retreating into the rising sun, inspiring the anthem of our nation. 220313 The spirit of Liberty, not to be denied. The Earthen star, Fort McHenry, a reminder of those brave patriots who having done all, stood and prevailed. It is why we stand today, honoring past present and future generations of freedom loving Americans when we hear the anthem and raise the star spangled banner. LARA TRUMP 220347 LARA TRUMP>> Good evening, America. I'm Lara Trump, daughter of Bob and Linda (?), sister to Kyle, mother to Luke and Carolina and the daughter-in-law of our 45th president, Donald J. Trump. But tonight I come to you simply as an American. My life began like many in our country. I grew up in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. My parents were small business owners and worked hard to make sure that my brother and I had everything we needed but not everything we wanted. 220419 My parents raised me to believe that in America I could achieve anything with hard work and determination. The opportunities available to me were limited only by the size of my ambition. That I should dream big and I did. Those very dreams are what led me to New York City. I heard the adage, if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere and I intended to do just that. Never in a million years did I think I would be on this stage tonight and certainly never thought I would end up with the last name "Trump." 220453 My seventh grade English teacher, Mrs. B, used to tell us, believe none of what you hear, half of what you read, and only what you're there to witness first hand. The meaning of those words never fully weighed on me until I met my husband and the Trump family. Any preconceived notion I had of this family disappeared immediately. They were warm and caring. They were hard workers. And they were down to Earth. They reminded me of my own family. They made me feel like I was home. Walking the halls of the Trump organization, I saw the same family environment. 220530 I also saw the countless women executives who thrived there year after year. Gender didn't matter. What mattered was the ability to get the job done. I learned this directly when, in 2016, my father-in-law asked me to help him win my cherished home state and my daughter's namesake, North Carolina. Though I had no political experience, he believed in me. He knew I was capable even if I didn't. 220558 So it didn't surprise me when president Donald Trump appointed so many women to senior level positions in his administration -- Secretary of the United Nations, secretary of the air force, the first female CIA director, the first black female director of the fish and wildlife service and countless ambassadors just to name a few. Under President Trump's leadership, women's unemployment hit the lowest level since World War II. 220624 4.3 million new jobs have been created for women. In 2019 alone, women took over 70% of all new jobs. Female small business ownership remains at an all-time high, and 600,000 women have been lifted out of poverty, all since President Trump took office. 220643 He didn't do these things to gain a vote or check a box. He did them because they're the right things to do. 100 years ago today, the 19th amendment was ratified, granting the right to vote to every American woman. And since that day, incredible strides have been made by women in America. From Amelia Erhardt to Rosa parks and Sally Ride, women shaped our history and are part of what has made our country the most exceptional nation in the world. 220714 I often think back to my 24-year-old self driving alone in my car from North Carolina to New York City. And I think about what I'd tell myself now as we head towards the most critical election in modern history. This is not just a choice between Republican and Democrat or left and right. This is an election that will decide if we keep America America or if we head down an uncharted frightening path to socialism. 220743 Abraham Lincoln once famously said, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." While those words were spoken over 150 years ago, never have they been more relevant. Will we choose the right path and maintain the unique freedoms and boundless opportunities that make this country the greatest in the history of the world? 220811 Will we remain the beacon of hope for those around the world fighting oppression, communism, and tyranny? The choice is ours. I know the promise of America, because I've lived it. Not just as a member of the Trump family, but as a woman who knows what it's like to work in blue collar jobs, to serve customers for tips, and to aspire to rise. When I look at my son Luke and my daughter Carolina, I wonder, what sort of country will I be leaving for them, for our future generations? 220843 In recent months, we've seen weak, spineless politicians seek control of our great American cities to violent mobs. Defund the police is the rallying cry for the new radical Democrat party. 220857 Joe Biden will not do what it takes to maintain order, to keep our children safe in our neighborhoods and in their schools, to restore our American way of life. We cannot dare to dream our biggest dreams for ourselves or for our children while consumed by worry about the safety of our families. President Trump is the law and order president, from our borders to our backyards. President Trump will keep America safe. President Trump will keep America prosperous. 220927 President Trump will keep America America. If you're watching tonight and wrestling with your vote on November 3, I implore you, tune out the distorted news and bias commentary and hear it straight from someone who knows. I wasn't born a trump. I'm from the south, I was raised a Carolina girl. I went to public schools and worked my way through a state university. Mrs. B from my seventh grade English class was right. 220957 What I learned about our president is different than what you might have heard. I learned that he's a good man. That he loves his family. That he didn't need this job. That no one on Earth works harder for the American people. That he's willing to fight for his beliefs and for the people and the country that he loves. 221018 He's a person of conviction. He's a fighter and will never stop fighting for America. He will uphold our values. He will preserve our families and he will build upon the great American edict that our union will never be perfect until opportunity is equal for all, including and especially for women. 221040 Our 40th president, Ronald Reagan, said it best: "The dreams of people may differ, but everybody wants their dreams to come true." And America, above all places, gives us the freedom to do that. It's up to us to keep this country a place where no dream is out of reach for our children and generations beyond. To my father-in-law, thank you for believing in me. 221105 Thank you for bravely leading this country and thank you for continuing to fight every day for America. May god bless and protect the Gulf states in the path of the hurricane. May god bless our troops, and may god continue to bless this incredible country. SAM VIGIL 221140 VIGIL>> Good evening. My name is Sam Vigil. There is a hole in my heart since my beloved Jackie was taken from me. This is her story. There were two things that Jackie loved to do every day. One was to go to the gym and tweet out bible verses and prayers to her friends. On November 19, the tweets stopped. That day started out like any other day. She left for the gym early in the morning. I heard the garage door open. Seconds later, I heard the car horn. 221212 I went outside to see if she had forgotten something. What I saw was a jeep blocking her car in the driveway. I noticed the bullet hole in Jackie's window. I saw someone jumping into the jeep and speeding away. Jackie had just been shot and killed in cold blood. We think this was a carjacking gone wrong. Very wrong. Every time I open the garage door or stand in the driveway, I hear that horn. I see her slumped in the seat. 221243 Where -- when I go to bed at night, that sound and image haunt me. That is my life sentence. It's a sentence being served by too many families left behind by senseless killings. Albuquerque, where I live, is one of the most violent cities in the country. 221303 Fewer than 50% of homicides are solved. It is a sad irony that Jackie immigrated to the U.S. for a better life than her native Columbia only to be gunned down in her own driveway. For eight months, there were no arrests no leads in connection with Jackie's murder. The Albuquerque police were overwhelmed. They needed help. Help arrived when president trump launched operation legend in July of this year. Almost immediately the FBI took over Jackie's case. In a matter of days, they arrested four people. 221341 The fifth suspect killer was arrested in Texas on unrelated charges. He is an illegal immigrant with a long criminal record. He had been deported in September and had come back in October to terrorize our community. I am extremely grateful to President Trump and the FBI for their efforts to deliver justice for Jackie and all the other innocent victims of violent crime. I'm honored to support the president because he is supporting us. I know he will never stop fighting for justice, for law and order. for peace, security, and our communities. CLARENCE HENDERSON 211424 CLARENCE HENDERSON>> Greetings, my fellow Americans. I am Clarence Henderson. There's been movements that have changed the course of history. Among the most extraordinary was the civil rights movement. 60 years ago, segregation was legal and enforced. The simple act of sitting at a lunch counter could lead to physical harm, jail time or worse. 221449 I know from personal experience. Walking into Woolworth's Department Store on Fairway and Second, 1960, I knew it was unlike any day I'd experienced before. My friends had been denied service the day before because of the color of their skin. We knew it wasn't right. But when we went back the next day, I didn't know whether I was going to come out in a vertical or prone position, in handcuffs or on a stretcher or even in a body bag. 221524 By sitting down to order a cup of coffee, we challenged injustice. We knew it was necessary, but we didn't know what would happen. We faced down the KKK. We were cursed at and called all kinds of names. They threatened to kill us and some of us were arrested, but it was worth it. 221548 Our actions inspired similar protests throughout the south against racial injustice. And in the end, segregation was abolished and our country moved a step closer to true equality for all. That's what actual peaceful protest can accomplish. America isn't perfect. We're always improving. But the great thing about this country is that it's not where you come from. It's where you're going. 221616 I was born on what some would call the wrong side of the tracks. I don't even have a birth certificate. I never attended an integrated school. And I'm the only one out of my immediate family who graduated from college, an hbcu. I'm a military veteran and a civil rights activist. And you know what else? I'm a Republican. And I support Donald Trump. If that sounds strange, you don't know your history. It was a Republican party that passed the 13th amendment, abolishing slavery. 221654 It was the Republican Party that passed the 14th Amendment, giving Black men citizenship. It was the Republican party that passed the 15th amendment, giving Black men the right to vote. Freedom of thought is a powerful thing. There are Americans, voters all over the country who media is trying to convince to conform to the same old Democratic talking points. You know what that will get you? The same old results. Joe Biden had the audacity to say if you don't vote for him, you ain't Black. Well, to that I say: if you do vote for Biden, you don't know history. 221733 Donald Trump is not a politician. He's a leader. Politicians are a dime a dozen. Leaders are priceless. The record funding Trump gave HBCUs is priceless, too. So are the record number of jobs he created for the black community and the investment he drove into our neighborhoods with tax incentives and opportunity Zones. And so are the lives he restored by passing criminal justice reform where 91% of the inmates released are black. 221807 These achievements demonstrate that Donald Trump truly cares about black lives. His policies show his heart. He's done more for black Americans in four years than Joe Biden has done in 50. Donald Trump is offering real and lasting change, an unprecedented opportunity to rise. A country that embraces the spirit of the civil rights movement of the 60s. 221835 A place where people are judged by the content of their character, their talents and abilities, not by the color of their skin. This is the America I was fighting for 60 years ago. this is the America Donald Trump is fighting for today. Let's all join in this fight for re-electing president trump on November 3. Thank you. RICHARD GRENELL 221904 GRENELL>> During the presidential debates four years ago, one outsider stood alone and said in public what most Americans thought in private. It was 14 years after the start of the war in Afghanistan and 12 years after the invasion of Iraq, where thousands of American troops had died and trillions in taxpayer dollars had been spent. And yet no candidate could bring themselves to admit that something had gone badly wrong with American foreign policy. 221935 But the American voter, the American soldier and the American taxpayer had always been let down. Except for one, Donald Trump. He called America's endless wars what they were -- a disaster. The media was shocked because Donald Trump was running as a Republican. And yet, he said out loud what we all knew, that American foreign policy was failing to make Americans safer. 222009 After the end of the cold war, Democrats and Republicans in Washington bought into the illusion that the whole world would start to resemble America, and so they started to pursue unlimited globalization. They welcomed China into the World Trade Organization. They engaged in nation building in Afghanistan, and tried to export democracy to Iraq. 222034 They signed a nuclear deal with Iran and a global climate agreement in Paris. But they didn't ground any of it in the interests of the average American. So for decades while Washington politicians built a global system, American wages stagnated. Our great cities and industries were hollowed out. Entire communities were devastated. 222059 And our manufacturing plants were shipped off to China. That's what happened when Washington stopped being the capitol of the United States and started being the capitol of the world. As the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, I had a front row seat to Donald Trump's America first foreign policy. I wish American could see how president trump negotiates on their behalf. 222126 I've watched President Trump charm the chancellor of Germany while insisting that Germany pay its NATO obligations. I was proud to witness President Trump say to foreign leaders, I don't blame you for wanting America to pay for your security. I actually respect you for out- negotiating the presidents before me. But it stops with me. I won't let the American taxpayer be taken advantage of. Donald Trump's administration has always made clear that our priority is the American people's security. 222203 That's the job of all leaders, to put their people first. And we've seen how this strategy has succeeded. In four short years, Donald Trump has led even some Washington Democrats to agree on the Chinese threat, on trade deals that benefit America first, on alliances that share responsibility. In four years, Donald Trump didn't start any new wars. He brought troops home. 222231 He rebuilt the military and signed peace deals that make Americans safer. The Washington elites want you to think this kind of foreign policy is immoral. And so they call it nationalist. That tells you all you need to know. The DC crowd thinks when they call Donald trump a nationalist, they're insulting him. As if the American president isn't supposed to base foreign policy on America's national interests. 222301 A return to the Biden way of thinking means America gives the radical terrorist regime in Tehran a planeload of cash in the middle of the night. Well you see, president trump also sent an aircraft in the middle of the night to deal with Iran. But that plane was on a different mission. An air strike to take out the head of Iran's terror machine who plotted the deaths of Americans. 222327 But we also must be clear that when those who seek freedom take tremendous personal risk in places like Hong Kong, Tehran or Minsk there's no doubt who president trump's administration supports. We will always stand with the people the who fight for their god-given freedoms. Don't be fooled. The Washington establishment is trying to sell you on their candidate. 222358 Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972, 48 years ago. Well, it's actually the typical Washington story. Just this year, 22 Democrats ran for President. They rejected all of the outsiders and nominated the ultimate Washington insider, someone that they had to pull out of retirement. 222424 Every time Joe Biden offers a new idea, you should ask yourself: why didn't he try that over the last 48 years? Today, the Democrats blame a global pandemic that started in China on President Trump, and they still blame Russia for Hillary Clinton's loss in 19-- in 2016. As acting director of national intelligence, I saw the Democrats' entire case for Russian collusion. 222451 And what I saw made me sick to my stomach. The Obama-Biden administration secretly launched a surveillance operation on the Trump campaign and silenced the many brave intelligence officials who spoke up against it. They presented bogus information as facts. They lied to judges, then they classified anything that undermined their case. And after Donald Trump won the election, when they should have continued the American tradition of helping the President-Elect transition into the White House, they tried instead to undercut him even more. 222533 Former vice president Joe Biden asked intelligence officials to uncover the hidden information on President Trump's incoming national security adviser three weeks before the inauguration. That's the Democrats. Between surveillance, classifications, leaks and puppet candidates, they never want the American people to know who is actually calling the shots. 222557 But with Donald Trump, you always know exactly who is in charge. Because the answer is you. You're in charge. Not lobbyists, not special interests. Not warmongers or China sympathizers or globalization fanatics. With Donald Trump and Mike Pence in the white house, the boss is the American people. President Trump rightly calls his foreign policy "America first." 222630 America first does not advance the interests of one group of Americans at the expense of another. It has no bias about red or blue, educated or not educated, urban or rural. America first is simply the belief that politicians should focus on the equality and dignity of every American. And that this duty is fulfilled by promoting the safety and wealth of the American people above all else. That's America first. That's the trump doctrine and that, my friends, is four more years. [RNC VIDEO] 222724 VO>> By dawn's early light, millions of Americans give thanks for this land, our liberties and those who defend it. That same pride inspired the words of our National Anthem, penned here as the smoke of battle lifted over two centuries ago. When those American soldiers bravely fought and died, repelling the British onslaught, they did so not only for our people which that flag represented, but for our principles for which the flag stood. 222754 Our god-given freedoms, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, equality under the law, government by the people. These are the threads that bind us together as Americans. For we're not a nation born of blood, but of belief. 222813 And even though that old flag has sometimes been battered and beaten, faded and forgotten, fired upon and set ablaze, there are heroes throughout our history who have picked up those tattered strands, mended them, and raised our flag anew. 222830 Just as the soldiers at Fort McHenry fought in defense of the beliefs that bind us today, there are new leaders who have devoted their life to do the same. 222846 MIKE PENCE (ON VIDEO)>> Greetings across the amber waves of grain, this is Mike pence. VO>> Across Indiana highways and homes, his voice warmly welcomed hoosiers each morning. Mike Pence filled the radio waves with conservative commentary, guarding our American ideals. But much like the man who inspired him, Mike didn't grow up a Republican. 222907 MIKE PENCE (VO)>> As president Reagan said, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. >> His grandfather was a hard-working Irish immigrant who drove a bus to provide for his family. His father served our nation bravely in the Korean war and earned a bronze star. Mike was the third of six children raised here in Columbus, Indiana, with a cornfield in his backyard. 222930 MIKE PENCE (ON VIDEO)>> The foundation of America is freedom, and the foundation of freedom is faith. VO>> It was in this small Indiana town, his foundation of faith in Jesus Christ was laid. And from that conviction, sprung his love of people and service to others. It was at a church service where Mike met the love of his life, Karen. They married and have three children, Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey. MIKE PENCE (ON VIDEO)>> I'm a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order. 223000 VO>> Mike became the President of Free-Market Think Tank, the host of a statewide conservative radio show, and then a Congressman. In Washington, Mike quickly became known as a foremost defender of freedom. He led conservatives in the fight to protect our time-honored values of family, faith, life, liberty, and limited government. 223023 MIKE PENCE (ON VIDEO)>> Our nation's strength begins at homes, because strong families make a strong America. VO>> Mike earned the trust of the people of his state, and became the 50th governor of Indiana. He delivered the largest state tax cut in Indiana history, expanded school choice, led the country in manufacturing, and helped more hoosiers get to work than ever before, but he wasn't through. 223045 DAVID MUIR (ON VIDEO)>> ABC news has learned that Donald Trump will choose Indiana governor Mike pence to be his running mate. TRUMP (ON VIDEO)>> I would like to introduce a man who I truly believe will be the next vice president of the United States. Governor Mike pence. 223102 VO>> As our vice president, Mike Pence has held tightly to those threads of freedom, woven through our history. Leading with those principles alongside president trump, our nation experienced prosperity like never before. TRUMP (ON VIDEO)>> He is solid as a rock. He's been a fantastic vice president. 223120 VO>> And now in these uncertain days, we are equipped to overcome. In times of trouble, some call to retreat from those ideals. But Americans throughout history have lifted them in triumph, hope, and resilience. Mike pence knows those stars and stripes do not merely represent who we are, but more importantly, what we can be. 223147 As the sun rises again on America, we lift our eyes to those lofty truths, to guide our country and every one of us to greater heights. In this land of the free and home of the brave. Vice president Mike pence. 223227 [MIKE AND KAREN PENCE ENTER] 223227 >> Please welcome the vice president of the United States, Mike Pence. Accompanied by the second lady, Mrs. Karen Pence. MIKE PENCE 223327 [CROWD CHANTS "FOUR MORE YEARS] 223336 MIKE PENE>> Good evening, America. It's an honor to speak to you tonight from the hallowed grounds of Fort McHenry. The site of the very battle that inspired the words of our national anthem. Those words have inspired this land of heroes in every generation since. It was on this site 206 years ago when our young republic heroically withstood a ferocious naval bombardment from the most powerful empire on Earth. 223409 They came to crush our revolution, to divide our nation, and to end the American experiment. The heroes who held this fort took their stand for life, liberty, freedom and the American flag, and those ideals have defined our nation. 223434 But they were hardly ever mentioned at last week's Democratic national convention. Instead Democrats spent four days attacking America. Joe Biden said that we were living through a season of darkness. But as president trump said, where Joe Biden sees American darkness, we see American greatness. 223512 In these challenging times, our country needs a president who believes in America, who believes in the boundless capacity of the American people, to meet any challenge, defeat any foe, and defend the freedoms we hold dear. America needs four more years of president Donald Trump in the white house. 223540 Before I go forward, allow me to say a word to the families and communities in the path of Hurricane Laura. Our prayers are with you tonight, and our administration is working closely with authorities in the states that will be impacted. FEMA has mobilized resources and supplies for those in harm's way. This is a serious storm and we urge all of those in the affected areas to heed state and local authorities, stay safe and know that we'll be with you every step of the way, to support, rescue, respond, and recover in the days and weeks ahead. 223618 That's what Americans do. [ Applause ] Four years ago I answered the call to join this ticket because I knew that Donald Trump had the leadership and the vision to make America great again. And for the last four years I've watched this president endure unrelenting attacks but get up every day and fight to keep the promises that he made to the American people. 223652 So, with gratitude for the confidence president Donald Trump has placed in me, the support of our Republican party and the grace of god, I humbly accept your nomination to run and serve as Vice President of the United States. [applause/cheers] 223737 [crowd chants "FOUR MORE YEARS] 223740 Serving the American people in this office has been a journey I never expected. It's a journey that would not have been possible without the support of my family, beginning with my wonderful wife Karen. [ Applause ] 223801 She's a life-long school teacher, an incredible mother to our 3 children. And she's one outstanding second lady of the United States. I'm so proud of you. [ Applause ] And we couldn't be more proud of our three children: Marine Corps captain, Michael J. Pence, and his wife Sara. 223827 Our daughter Charlotte pence Bond, an author and wife to lieutenant Henry Bond who is currently deployed and serving our nation in the United States Navy. [ Applause ] 223845 And our youngest, a recent law school grad, our daughter Audrey and her fiance who like so many other Americans had to delay their wedding this summer. But we can't wait for Dan to be a part of our family. [ Applause ] In addition, my wife and kids, the person who's shaped my life the most is also with us tonight. 223916 My mom, Nancy. [ Applause ] She is the daughter of an irish immigrant, 87 years young. Mom follows politics very closely. And the truth be told, sometimes I think I'm actually her second favorite candidate on the trump/pence ticket. 223947 Thank you, Mom. I love you. Over the past 4 years, I've had the privilege to work closely with our President. I've seen him when the cameras are off. Americans see President Trump is lots if different ways. But there's not doubt how President Trump sees America. 224012 He sees America for what it is: a nation that has done more good in this world than any other, a nation that deserves far more gratitude than grievance. And if you want a president who falls silent when our heritage is demeaned or insulted, he's not your man. [ Applause ] 224041 Now we came by very different routes to this partnership, and some people think we're a little bit different. But you know, I've learned a few things watching him. Watching him deal with all that we've been through over the past four years. He does things in his own way, on his own terms. 224103 Not much gets past him, and when he has an opinion, he's liable to share it. [laughter] He's certainly kept things interesting. But more importantly, president Donald Trump has kept his word to the American people. [ Applause ] 224130 In a city known for talkers, President Trump is a doer. And few presidents have brought more Independence, energy or determination to that office. Four years ago, we inherited a military hollowed out by devastating budget cuts, an economy struggling to break out of the slowest recovery since the great depression. ISIS controlled a land mass twice the size of Pennsylvania, and we witnessed a steady assault on our most cherished values -- freedom of religion and the right to life. That's when president Donald Trump stepped in. 224211 And from day one, he kept his word. We rebuilt our military. [ Applause ] This president signed the largest increase in our national defense since the days of Ronald Reagan and created the first new branch of our armed forces in 70 years, the United States space force. [ Cheers and applause ] 224241 And with that renewed energy, we also returned American astronauts to space on an American rocket for the first time in nearly 10 years. And after years of scandal that robbed our veterans of the care that you earned in the uniform of the United States, president trump kept his word again. We reformed the va and veterans choice is now available for every veteran in America. [ Applause ] 224319 Our armed forces and our veterans fill this land of heroes, and many join us tonight in this historic fort. Tonight, we have among us four recipients of the medal of honor, [ Applause ] six recipients of the purple heart, [ Applause ] a gold star mother of a gallant Navy S.E.A.L. [ Applause ] and wounded warriors from Soldiers Strong, a group that serves our injured veterans every day. 224401 We are honored by your presence and we thank you for your service. [ Applause ] 224429 With heroes just like these, we defend this nation every day. And under this commander in chief, we've taken the fight to radical islamic terrorists on our terms on their soil. Last year, American armed forces took the last inch of ISIS territory, crushed their caliphate and took down their leader without one American causality. [ Applause ] 224457 And I was there when president trump gave the order to take out the world's most dangerous terrorist, Iran's top general will never harm another American because qassem soleimani is gone. [ Cheers and applause ] 224518 My fellow Americans, you deserve to know, Joe Biden criticized President Trump following those decisions, decisions to rid the world of two terrorist leaders. But it's not surprising, because history records that Joe Biden even opposed the operation that took down Osama bin Laden. It's no wonder that the secretary of the defense under the Obama/Biden administration once said that Joe Biden has been, and I quote, "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." 224602 So we've stood up to our enemies and we've stood with our allies, like when President Trump kept his word and moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem, [cheers/applause] the capital of the state of Israel, setting the stage for the first Arab country to recognize Israel in 26 years. [ Applause ] 224628 Closer to home, we appointed more than 200 conservative judges to our federal courts. We supported the right to life and all the god given liberties enshrined in our constitution, including the second amendment, right to keep and bear arms. [applause] And when it came to the economy, President Trump kept his word and then some. We passed the largest tax cut and reform in American history. 224655 We rolled back more federal red tape than any administration ever had. We unleashed American energy and fought for free and fair trade. And in our first three years, businesses large and small created more than 7 million good-paying jobs, including 500,000 manufacturing jobs all across America. [ Applause ] 224722 Our country became a net exporter of energy for the first time in 70 years. Unemployment rates for African-Americans and hispanic Americans hit the lowest level ever recorded. 224733 And on this 100th anniversary of the women's right to vote, I'm proud to report that under President Donald Trump, we achieved the lowest unemployment rate for women in 65 years. [ Applause ] And more Americans working than ever before. In our first three years, we built the greatest economy in the world. We made America great again. [ Applause ] 224807 And then, the coronavirus struck from China. Before the first case of the coronavirus spread within the United States, the President took unprecedented action and suspended all travel from China, the second largest economy in the world. Now, that action saved untold American lives, and I can tell you firsthand, it bought us invaluable time to launch the greatest national mobilization since World War II. 224841 President Trump marshalled the full resources of our federal government from the outset. He directed us to forge a seamless partnership with governors across America, in both political parties. We partnered with private industry to reinvent testing and produce supplies that we -- that were distributed to hospitals around the land. 224905 Today we're conducting more than 800,000 tests a day and we have coordinated the delivery of billions of pieces of personal protective equipment for our amazing doctors, nurses and health care workers. [ Applause ] We saw to the manufacture of 100,000 ventilators in 100 days and no one who required a ventilator was ever denied a ventilator in the United States. [ Applause ] 224945 We built hospitals, surged military medical personnel, and enacted an economic rescue package that saved 50 million American jobs. And as we speak, we're developing a growing number of treatments known as therapeutics, including convalescent plasma that are saving lives all across America. Now, last week, Joe Biden said that no miracle is coming. 225015 Well, what Joe doesn't seem to understand is that America is a nation of miracles. [ Applause ] And I'm proud to report that we're on track to have the world's first safe, effective coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year. [ Applause ] 225042 After all the sacrifice in this year like no other, all the hardship, we're finding our way forward again. But tonight, our hearts are with all of the families who have lost loved ones and have family members still struggling with serious illness. In this country, we mourn with those who mourn, we grieve with those who grieve. And this night, I know that millions of Americans will pause and pray for god's comfort for each of you. 225123 You know, our country doesn't get through such a time unless its people find strength within. The response of doctors, nurses, first responders, farmers, factory workers, truckers and everyday Americans who put the health and safety of their neighbors first has been nothing short of heroic. [ Applause ] 225154 Veronica Saez put on her scrubs every day, day in and day out went to work in one of New York City's busiest hospitals. She stayed on the job, put in the long hours until it was done and then got back in her neighborhood and helped neighbors and friends struggling. Her brother William is a New York City firefighter and they're both emblematic of heroes all across this country. 225231 They're with us tonight, and I say to them and to all of you: you have earned the admiration of the American people, and we will always be grateful for your service and care. [applause] 225309 Thanks to the courage and compassion of the American people, we're slowing the spread. We're protecting the vulnerable, and we're saving lives. And we're opening up America again. Because of the strong foundation that President Trump poured in our first 3 years, we've already gained back 9.3 million jobs in the last three months alone. [cheers and applause] 225339 And we're not just opening up America again, we're opening up America's schools. [ Applause ] 225351 And I'm proud to report that my wife, Karen, that school teacher I've been married to will be returning to her classroom next week. And so to all of our heroic teachers and faculty and staff, thank you for being there for our kids. We're going to stay with you every step of the way. [ Applause ] 225417 In the days ahead as we open up America again, I promise you, we'll continue to put the health of America first. 225425 And as we work to bring this economy back, we all have a role to play, and we all have a choice to make. On November 3rd, you need to ask yourself, who do you trust to rebuild this economy? A career politician who presided over the slowest economic recovery since the great depression, or a proven leader who created the greatest economy in the world? 225456 The choice is clear. To bring America all the way back, we need four more years of president Donald Trump in the white house. [ Cheers and applause ] 225523 My fellow Americans, we're passing through a time of testing. When, in the midst of this global pandemic, just as our nation had begun to recover, we've seen violence and chaos in the streets of our major cities. 225538 President Trump and I will always support the right of Americans to peaceful protest. But rioting and looting is not peaceful protest. Tearing down statues is not free speech, and those who do so will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. [ Applause ] 225605 Last week Joe Biden didn't say one word about the violence and chaos engulfing cities across this country. So let me be clear, the violence must stop. Whether in Minneapolis, Portland or Kenosha. Too many heroes have died defending our freedom to see Americans strike each other down. 225629 We will have law and order on the streets of this country for every American of every race and creed and color. [ Cheers and applause ] President Trump and I know that the men and women that put on the uniform of law enforcement are the best of us. Every day, when they walk out that door, they consider our lives more important than their own. 225715 People like Dave Patrick Underwood, an officer in the Department of Homeland Security's federal protective service who was shot and killed during the riots in Oakland, California. Dave's heroism is emblematic of the heroes that serve in blue every day. And we're privileged tonight to be joined by his sister, Angela. 225745 Angela, we say to you, we -- we grieve with your family, and America will never forget or fail to honor officer Dave Patrick Underwood. [ Applause ] 225809 The American people know we don't have to choose between supporting law enforcement and standing with our African-American neighbors to improve the quality of their lives, education, jobs, and safety. 225827 And from the first days of this administration, we've done both. And we will keep supporting law enforcement and keep supporting our African-American and minority communities across this land for four more years. (standing ovation) Now, Joe Biden says that America is systematically racist. 225904 And that law enforcement in America has, and I quote, "an implicit bias" against minorities. When asked whether he'd support cutting funding to law enforcement, Joe Biden replied, "Yes, absolutely." Joe Biden would double down on the very policies that are leading to violence in America's cities. 225934 The hard truth is, you won't be safe in Joe Biden's America. And under President Trump, we will always stand with those who stand on the thin blue line, and we're not going to defund the police, not now, not ever. [ Cheers and applause ] 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 08262020 230000 2020 230010 My fellow Americans, we're passing through a time of testing. But soon, we will come to a time for choosing. Joe Biden has referred to himself as a transition candidate. And many were asking, transition to what? 230024 Last week Democrats didn't talk very much about their agenda. And if I were them, I wouldn't either. [ Laughter ] I mean Bernie Sanders did tell his followers that Joe Biden would be the most liberal president in modern times. In fact, he said, and I quote, that many of the ideas he fought for, that just a few years ago were considered radical, are now mainstream in the democratic party. 230059 At the root of their agenda, is the belief that America is driven by envy, not aspiration. That millions of Americans harbor ill will toward our neighbors, instead of loving our neighbors as ourselves. The radical left believes that the federal government must be involved in every aspect of our lives to correct those American wrongs. They believe the federal government needs to dictate how Americans live, how we should work, how we should raise our children. 230133 And in the process, deprive our people of freedom, prosperity and security. Their agenda is based on government control. Our agenda is based on freedom. [Applause] 230152 Where President Trump cut taxes, Joe Biden wants to raise taxes by nearly 4 trillion dollars. Where this President achieved energy independence for the United States, Joe Biden would abolish fossil fuels, end fracking, and impose a regime of climate change regulations that would drastically increase the cost of living for working families. Where we fought for free and fair trade and this president stood up to China and ended the era of economic surrender, Joe Biden has been a cheerleader for communist China. 230228 He wants to repeal all of the tariffs that are leveling the playing field for American workers and he actually criticized president trump for suspending all travel to China at the outset of this pandemic. Joe Biden is for open borders, sanctuary cities, free lawyers and health care for illegal immigrants. President trump, he secured our border and built nearly 300 miles of that border wall. [ Applause ] Joe Biden wants to end school choice. 230308 And President Trump believes that every parent should have the right to choose where their children go to school, regardless of their income or area code. [ Applause ] President Trump -- President Trump has stood without apology for the sanctity of human life, every day of this administration. Joe Biden, he supports taxpayer funding of abortion, right up to the moment of birth. 230342 When you consider their agenda, it's clear. Joe Biden would be nothing more than a Trojan horse for the radical left. The choice in this election has never been clearer, and the stakes have never been higher. Last week, Joe Biden said democracy is on the ballot. And the truth is, our economic recovery is on the ballot. 230408 Law and order are on the ballot. But so are things far more fundamental and foundational to our country. In this election it's not so much whether America will be more conservative or more liberal, more Republican or more Democrat. The choice in this election is whether America remains America. 230435 It's whether we will leave to our children and grandchildren a country grounded in our highest ideals of freedom, free markets, and the unalienable right to life and liberty, or whether we will leave them a country that is fundamentally transformed into something else. We stand at a crossroads, America. 230458 President Trump has set our nation on a path of freedom and opportunity. Joe Biden would set America on a path of socialism and decline, but we're not going to let it happen. [ Applause ] 230520 President Donald Trump believes in America and in the goodness of the American people, the boundless potential of every American to live out their dreams in freedom and, every day, President Trump has been fighting to protect the promise of America. 230537 Every day our president has been fighting to expand the reach of the American dream. Every day president Donald Trump has been fighting for you. And now it's our turn to fight for him. (applause) 230603 On this night in the company of heroes, I'm deeply grateful. Deeply grateful for the privilege of serving as vice president of this great nation, and to have the opportunity to serve again. I pray to be worthy of it, and I will give that duty all that's in me. In the year 2020, the American people have had more than our share of challenges. But, thankfully, we have a president with the toughness, energy, and resolve to see us through. 220641 Now, those traits actually run in our national character. As the invading force learned on approach to this fort, in September of 1814, against fierce and sustained bombardment, our young country was defended by heroes, not so different from those who are with us tonight. The enemy was counting on them to quit, but they never did. 230718 Fort McHenry, held and when morning came, our flag was still here. [ Applause ] My fellow Americans, we're going through a time of testing. But if you look through the fog of these challenging times, you will see. Our flag is still there today. 230756 That star-spangled banner still waves over the land of the free and the home of the brave. From these hallowed grounds, American patriots in generations gone by did their part to defend freedom. Now it's our turn. So let's run the race marked out for us. 230829 Let's fix our eyes on old glory and all she represents. Let's fix our eyes on this land of heros. And let their courage inspire. And let's fix our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith and our freedom. And never forget that where the spirit of the lord is, there's freedom. That means freedom always wins. [ Cheers and applause ] 230910 My fellow Americans, thank you for the honor of addressing you tonight and the opportunity to run and serve again as your vice president. I leave here today inspired. And I leave here today more convinced than ever that we will do in our time, as Americans have done throughout our long and storied past. We will defend our freedom and our way of life. We will reelect our president and principled Republican leaders across the land. 230948 And with president Donald Trump in the White House for four more years, and with god's help, we will make America great again. Again. [ Applause ] Thank you. God bless you. And god bless the United States of America. [ Cheers and applause ] 231035 [DONALD AND MELANIA TRUMP ENTER] 231132 ["FOUR MORE YEARS" CHANTS] 231212 [TRACE ADKINS SINGING "STAR SPANGLED BANNER"] 231449 [DONALD AND MELANIA TRUMP GO TO CROWD] #### RNC Night 3 (#1): Re-upping schedule and preview Good evening from Charlotte, Jacksonville, Jerusalem, my living room (again!) for night 3 of the Republican National Convention. We are less than an hour away from the start of the primetime program, on a night featuring several notable speakers, including Vice President Pence and Karen Pence; Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Joni Ernst; Reps. Dan Crenshaw, Elise Stefanik and Lee Zeldin; Kellyanne Conway and Kayleigh McEnany. Tonight's theme: "America Land of Heroes." Below this email you'll find tonight's full schedule, plus background, courtesy of Alisa and Terrance (though please note that much of it is off-the-record prior to air). Notes from tonight's proceedings will all come chained as replies to this email. Despite many speeches being pre-taped, we'll be on particular lookout for reactions to the Kenosha shooting and ongoing protests, and to Hurricane Laura, and will be sure to flag any related comments. RNC Night 3 (#2): Legislators highlight law enforcement within 'heroes' theme 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 Full RNC Night 3 Log <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1v2jpAz7GdH8tX-tl-PbaeBlyGdNBhVAMAoX5Adhvzlk%2Fedit&data=02%7C01%7CMatthew.X.Johnson.-ND%40abc.com%7Cbb369fea80ee4499b55908d84a25e978%7C56b731a8a2ac4c32bf6b616810e913c6%7C1%7C0%7C637340874074699417&sdata=nqIX44I9Rb5fKP8Ad9ehf71kZX4nYJhSPgdNGjqRCMA%3D&reserved=0> After another Jon Voight-narrated video to begin the evening, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem -- who has worked her way into President Trump's good graces recently, particularly following Trump's July 4 trip to Mt. Rushmore -- gave the first noteworthy remarks, arguing that "our founding principles are under attack," and took an ominous and potentially pandemic-related shot at "so-called experts" while discussing civil liberties. "America is unique in the world. Government's power at all levels is limited to the confines of our Constitution, which protects our God-given liberties and civil rights. We are not - and will not - be the subjects of an elite class of so-called experts. We the people are the government." (20:37:30) Noem also compared President Trump to Abraham Lincoln -- a comparison Trump likes to make himself when it comes to advancing the lives of Black Americans. "When he was just 28 years old, Honest Abe saw wild and furious passions, "worse than savage mobs," he said, taking the place of reasoned judgment. He was alarmed by the increasing disregard for the rule of law throughout the country." (20:37:59) "He was concerned for the people who had seen their property destroyed, their families attacked, and their lives threatened or even taken away. These good people were becoming tired of, and disgusted with, a government that offered them no protection. Sound familiar?" (20:38:37) Later, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee focused much of her remarks on "the heroes of our law enforcement and armed services" including some lines critics are likely to seize upon amid the uproar over the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Blackburn did not specifically mention the shooting. "Leftists turned them into villains. They want to cancel them. But I'm here to tell you, these heroes can't be cancelled." (20:44:53) "I see law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every single day to keep our community safe, in spite of the hatred thrown at them." (20:45:30) "They say, we can't gather in community groups, but encourage protests, riots, and looting in the streets." (20:47:14) Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw picked up on that theme in some ways, comparing the heroism he witnessed as a Navy SEAL to the everyday heroism across the country. Like Blackburn, Crenshaw took clear shots at Democrats and this summer's racial justice protests. "It's the cop that gets spit on one day and will save a child's life the next." (20:50:30) "Heroism is self-sacrifice, not moralizing and lecturing over others when they disagree. Heroism is grace, not perpetual outrage. Heroism is rebuilding our communities, not destroying them. Heroism is renewing faith in the symbols that unite us, not tearing them down." (20:50:50) RNC Night 3 (#3): Women's issues spotlighted; McEnany gets personal 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 Full RNC Night 3 Log <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1v2jpAz7GdH8tX-tl-PbaeBlyGdNBhVAMAoX5Adhvzlk%2Fedit&data=02%7C01%7CMatthew.X.Johnson.-ND%40abc.com%7Cb445ea48026d4e3315de08d84a295790%7C56b731a8a2ac4c32bf6b616810e913c6%7C1%7C0%7C637340888949873480&sdata=yhcX97SjhJ8t6aFLp9ZmPV%2BMQMFo5e%2Bmtp5rx%2FL%2Fv7E%3D&reserved=0> After a video on the women's suffrage movement, a trio of prominent women spoke to the convention. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany delivered deeply personal remarks about her choice to undergo a preventative mastectomy in 2018 and President Trump's support both shortly after the procedure and later while working White House, while balancing motherhood. "During one of my most difficult times, I expected to have the support of my family, but I had more support than I knew. As I came out of anesthesia, one of the first calls I received was from Ivanka Trump. Days later, as I recovered, my phone rang. It was President Trump, calling to check on me. I was blown away. Here was the leader of the free world caring about me." (21:06:05) She also echoed some of Trump's language about community safety and squeezed in what appeared to be a reference to the DNC pledge of allegiance controversy. "When I look into my baby's eyes, I see a new life, a miracle for which I have a solemn responsibility to protect.That means protecting America's future- a future President Trump will fight for where our neighborhoods are protected, where life is sacred, where God is cherished-- not taken out of our schools, removed from our Pledge, and erased from our history. I want my daughter to grow up in President Donald Trump's America." (21:07:47) Next, Second Lady Karen Pence highlighted the work of the armed services, referencing the service of her son and son-in-law, members of the Marines and Navy, respectively, and the difficulty many veterans encounter with PTSD. Referencing the 19th Amendment's centennial, she also put out a blanket call for Americans to vote -- something the administration's critics would argue that her husband and President Trump are making it more difficult to do. "100 years ago women secured the right to vote, so let's vote, America. Let's honor our heroes." (21:14:30) Afterward, Kellyanne Conway, promoted Trump's efforts to elevate women within the administration and argued that "empowerment" comes neither from social media slogans or "corporate handbooks." "This has been a century worth celebrating, but also a reminder that our democracy is young and fragile. A woman in a leadership role still can seem novel. Not so for President Trump. For decades, he has elevated women to senior positions in business and in government. He confides in and consults us, respects our opinions, and insists that we are on equal footing with the men. President Trump helped me shatter a barrier in the world of politics by empowering me to manage his campaign to its successful conclusion." (21:15:47) "For many of us, "women's empowerment" is not a slogan. It comes not from strangers on social media or sanitized language in a corporate handbook. It comes from the everyday heroes who nurture us, who shape us, and who believe in us." (21:16:17) RNC Night 3 (#4): Speakers attack Biden on abortion, faith; Cawthorn challenges conservatives 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 Full RNC Night 3 Log <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1v2jpAz7GdH8tX-tl-PbaeBlyGdNBhVAMAoX5Adhvzlk%2Fedit&data=02%7C01%7CMatthew.X.Johnson.-ND%40abc.com%7C9e032392ab3c40f3ea6708d84a2f3ff7%7C56b731a8a2ac4c32bf6b616810e913c6%7C1%7C0%7C637340914175930792&sdata=I9rwYPAb%2FYIoGR4Iei6PhXjpPNcBEXxOS2x0e%2BF9ImE%3D&reserved=0> Abortion was the common thread between the remarks of Sister Dede Byrne of the community of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and former college football coach Lou Holtz. Byrne shared details of her career as an Army doctor before entering the religious order in 2002, and used the experience to make her position on reproductive rights abundantly clear. "As followers of Christ, we are called to stand up for life and against the politically correct or fashionable today. We must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb. In fact, the laws we create define how we see our humanity. And we must ask ourselves, what are we saying when we go into a womb and snuff out an insignificant, powerless, voiceless life." (21:22:44) She went on to make an inflammatory claim about the positions of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the issue. "Donald Trump is the most pro-life President that this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages. His belief in the sanctity of life transcends politics. President Trump will stand up against Biden/Harris who are the most anti-life presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late-term abortion and infanticide." (21:23:45) Holtz later pointed to the subject to explain his support of Trump, while launching another attack on Biden's faith. "One of the important reasons he has my trust is because nobody has been a stronger advocate for the unborn than President Trump. The Biden-Harris ticket is the most radically pro-abortion campaign in history. They and other politicians are "Catholics in Name Only" and abandon innocent lives. President Trump protects those lives." (21:27:23) Later, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik gave a relatively traditional convention speech, describing her upstate New York district and telling her American dream story: the first in her family to go to college, small business success and election as the youngest Republican woman in House history. She also touted her work as a member of President Trump's impeachment defense (only the second mention of the word "impeachment" in three days), using it to bash the media and Democrats, who she later also characterized in now-boilerplate fashion as socialists. "President Trump has fought tirelessly to deliver results for all Americans, despite the Democrats' baseless and illegal impeachment sham and the media's endless obsession with it. I was proud to lead the effort standing up for the Constitution, President Trump, and most importantly the American people. This attack was not just on the President, it was an attack on you - your voice and your vote." (21:35:09) "But the American people were not swayed by these partisan attacks. Our support for President Trump is stronger than ever before." (21:35:23) From a former "Baby of the House" to the potential next holder of that title. 25-year-old North Carolina 11th Congressional District candidate Madison Cawthorn spoke of the car accident that left him partially paralyzed at 18, but of his decision, in its aftermath to "fight for our future" after his wheelchair initially made him feel "invisible." "This is a time of great adversity for our country. And I know something about adversity." (21:37:26) Cawthorn noted that several of the Founding Fathers had their first tastes of government and military leadership in their 20s (though he incorrectly claimed James Madison signed the Declaration of Independence - h/t Kelsey Walsh) "In times of peril, young people saved this country abroad and at home. We held the line, scaled cliffs, crossed oceans, liberated camps and cracked codes." (21:39:32) Interestingly, he also issued a charge to his fellow Republicans, challenging them to be clearer about their ideas and policies. "To conservatives, let's define what we support and win the argument in areas like health care and the environment." (21:40:31) There was also a nice moment at the end of his remarks during which Cawthorn stood while reciting part of the Pledge of Allegiance. (21:41:23) RNC Night 3 (#5): Remarks on China, coronavirus, agriculture as speakers jump topic-to-topic 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 Full RNC Night 3 Log <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1v2jpAz7GdH8tX-tl-PbaeBlyGdNBhVAMAoX5Adhvzlk%2Fedit&data=02%7C01%7CMatthew.X.Johnson.-ND%40abc.com%7C92c74d7709dd43420f5c08d84a31c317%7C56b731a8a2ac4c32bf6b616810e913c6%7C1%7C0%7C637340924953504603&sdata=kbPL5btX2PfhIypqyawNq7oWfP9p3rij4sL3FHlbKTU%3D&reserved=0> Chinese dissident Chen Guangchen described that country's Communist Party as an "enemy of humanity" and accused it of covering up the coronavirus pandemic, while criticizing the Obama-Biden administration for a policy of "appeasement." "The U.S. must use its values of freedom, democracy, and the role of law to gather a coalition of other democracies to stop CCP's aggression. President Trump has led on this, and we need the other countries to join him in this fight. A fight for our future. Standing up to fight and fairness isn't easy. I know. So does President Trump. But he has shown the courage to lead that fight." (21:48:56) New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, who had been listed earlier in the schedule, but spoke over midway through, devoted a larger proportion of his remarks to the pandemic than nearly any other speaker through the first three days. Zeldin spoke of the health challenges faced by his daughters before turning to the efforts undertaken by the administration to combat the coronavirus. "When I learned my county's PPE stockpile was depleted, I immediately thought of those healthcare workers who saved my baby girls. Jared Kushner and I were on the phone late into that Saturday night. The very next day, President Trump announced he was sending us 200,000 N-95 masks. He actually delivered almost 400,000. That number quickly grew to 1.2 million masks, gowns, and more. The President sent thousands of ventilators to New York. He deployed the USS Comfort and converted the Javits Center to a field hospital." (21:51:25) "His administration authorized our lab testing requests at blinding speed. During a once in a century pandemic, an unforeseeable crisis sent to us from a far away land, the president's effort for New York was phenomenal." (21:51:56) Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, in the midst of a competitive campaign of her own, spoke about the recent derecho that wiped out one-third of the state's crops, and thanked Trump for immediately approving disaster aid. She further honed-in on agriculture while criticizing Democrats, and making a few less-than-truthful claims about the Green New Deal "I can't recall an administration more hostile to farmers than Obama-Biden, unless you count the Biden-Harris ticket. The Democratic Party of Joe Biden is pushing this so-called Green New Deal. If given power, they would essentially ban animal agriculture and eliminate gas-powered cars. It would destroy the agriculture industry, not just here in Iowa, but throughout the country." (21:57:31) RNC Night 3 (#6): Lara Trump on meeting the family; Richard Grenell on foreign policy and 'charming' Merkel 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 Full RNC Night 3 Log <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1v2jpAz7GdH8tX-tl-PbaeBlyGdNBhVAMAoX5Adhvzlk%2Fedit&data=02%7C01%7CMatthew.X.Johnson.-ND%40abc.com%7C9f499e9f2dcc4065864108d84a36bfa5%7C56b731a8a2ac4c32bf6b616810e913c6%7C1%7C0%7C637340946365837028&sdata=V9WrWu5Icu9soTZ80sBjYwGIVi3EzRPplTR01rO0%2BSM%3D&reserved=0> (Pence highlights TK via Gomez; h/t to Farrell, Gingello, Johnson, Levine, & McNish for the logs) Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law, and a now-seasoned public speaker and advocate through her role as a campaign adviser, gave another only-in-this-country speech, in which she spoke of her small business-owner parents and her New York City dreams, while offering a peek behind the curtain of the Trump family and highlighting women's issues yet again. "Any preconceived notion I had of this family disappeared immediately. They were warm and caring, they were hard workers, and they were down to earth. They reminded me of my own family - they made me feel like I was home." (22:04:53) "Walking the halls of the Trump Organization, I saw the same family environment. I also saw, first-hand, the countless women executives who thrived there, year after year." (22:05:22) She went on to detail how she became involved in the 2016 campaign, claiming his trust in her was a reflection of his support of all women, and perhaps reveling her father-in-law's lax employment vetting standards. "Though I had no political experience, he believed in me and supported me - he knew I was capable even if I didn't." (22:05:50) "So, it didn't surprise me when President Donald Trump appointed the most women to senior level positions of any administration in history. The Secretary of the United Nations, Secretary of the Air Force, the first female CIA Director, the first African American female director of the Fish and Wildlife service and countless ambassadors, just to name a few." (22:05:58) "He didn't do these things to gain a vote or to check a box - he did them because they are the right things to do." (22:06:43) After later pledging that the president will "keep America America," Lara Trump made a personal appeal to undecided voters, referencing her seventh grade teacher who once told her to "believe none of what you hear, half of what you read and only what you're there to witness firsthand." "If you're watching tonight and wrestling with your vote on November 3rd, I implore you: tune out the distorted news and biased commentary and hear it straight from someone who knows. I wasn't born a Trump. I'm from the South. I was raised a Carolina girl. I went to public schools and worked my way through a state university. Mrs. B from my seventh grade English class was right - what I learned about our president is different than what you might have heard." (22:09:27) "I learned that he is a good man. That he loves his family. That he didn't need this job. That no one on Earth works harder for the American people. That he's willing to fight for his beliefs, and for the people -- and the country -- that he loves." (22:09:57) Later, former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell harkened back to 2016, touting Trump, who, during that cycle's debates "stood alone and said in public what most Americans thought in private." "No candidate could bring themselves to admit that something had gone badly wrong with American foreign policy. That the American voter, the American soldier, and the American taxpayer, had all been let down. Except for one - Donald Trump. He called America's endless wars what they were: A disaster." (22:19:10) Grenell, also the former ambassador to Germany, stuck mostly to foreign policy and characterized the president as a savvy diplomat who still managed to negotiate like a businessman. "I've watched President Trump charm the Chancellor of Germany, while insisting that Germany pay its NATO obligations. I was proud to witness President Trump say to foreign leaders: "I don't blame you for wanting America to pay for your security. I actually respect you for out-negotiating the Presidents before me. But it stops with me. I won't let the American taxpayer be taken advantage of." (22:21:26) He also praised Trump's national security and defense record, arguing that a perspective rooted in nationalism had been unfairly criticized. "In four years, Donald Trump didn't start any new wars. He brought troops home. He rebuilt the military, and signed peace deals that make Americans safer. The Washington elites want you to think this kind of foreign policy is immoral. And so they call it "nationalist." That tells you all you need to know. The DC crowd thinks when they call Donald Trump a nationalist, they're insulting him. As if the American president isn't supposed to base foreign policy on America's national interests." (22:22:03) Turning to Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, Grenell honed in on Biden's age and questioned his efficacy as a leader given his long tenure in Washington. "Don't be fooled - the Washington establishment is trying to sell you on their candidate. Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972. 48 years ago." (22:23:58) "It's actually the typical Washington story. Just this year, 22 Democrats ran for President. They rejected all the outsiders, and nominated the ultimate Washington insider. Someone they had to pull out of retirement. Every time Joe Biden offers a new idea, you should ask yourself: "Why didn't he try that over the last 48 years?" (22:24:24)

5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 08262020 230000 2020 ***DO NOT EDIT OR MODIFY THIS DOC IN ANY WAY. ONLY LOGGERS ARE PERMITTED. WEDNESDAY AUGUST 26 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION FULL LOG 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 203006 VO>> Long before the shots fired at Concord, were men and women of remarkable character and fortitude. An extraordinary spirit fueled the dreams they held. That spirit lived on to win liberty in the Revolution, embolden the underground railroads. It strengthened the brave souls at Normandy. 230032 It endured with those who gallantly fought the spread of communism. And on 9/11, that same spirit was found in the men and women storming the gates of death to save precious lives. The spirit of heroism thrives in the presence of tyranny, disaster. It is stronger than any virus. 203058 Yet there are those who condemn our heroes, seek to erase history, deconstruct the American ideals, remake America into something it was never intended to be. But the spirit of heroism stands in the breach. It lives in the heart. It breathes in the soul. And is woven into the courageous fabric of Americans like you. It preserves liberty. It strengthens families. It empowers the extraordinary. 203132 The spirit of heroism inspires us to act when others are in need, to do the right thing. Join us tonight. Dream heroic dreams. Celebrate America, land of the free, home of the brave. 203200 >> From Washington D.C., welcome to the 2020 Republican National Convention. Tonight, celebrating America as the land of heroes. 203225 >> Lord, almighty god, we come before you this evening and pray for your divine protection over our brothers and sisters in the path of storms along our Gulf Coast. You are our rock and our shelter, in the midst of the storms of life. You are the god who commands the winds and the waves, and we pray that He will provide refuge to our people. 203252 Oh, lord, you have granted us certain natural rights such as the right to speak freely, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness as well as religious freedom, the right to assemble and the right to self-defense. Only in America have these god-given rights so flourished and been categorized as belonging to the people, embodying the very essence of our government. 223322 Father, we pray that this outlook and mindset, this form of government continues, as has been our history, especially now when, to our horror, it is being challenged. And so, we pray that god give strength and health to our President who has splendidly demonstrated daily his determination to defend and maintain the god-given rights of our citizens, as enshrined in our constitution and in our declaration. 203356 [And] eloquently passed down through our Judeoo-Christian tradition. President Trump has stood up fearlessly against those corrupting the term "social justice," so as to deny Americans their birthright and these divine gifts. 203413 May god protect him. May god bless all those in government and among our citizens who seek to honor, defend, and preserve our heritage. This land was founded in an epic and providential moment. Like the revelation at sinai, it was the moment when the vision of god rendezvoused with the soaring and noble plans of appointed men. Yet every so often, apace various generations, we are compelled to resurrect and give rebirth to our providential beginning, to renew our present days with the exuberance of those founding days. 203501 Perhaps that is what is meant when you say make America great again. We pledge to viginantly protect and tend the garden so as to imbibe its blessed fruits. May god continue to make America great and may we continue to be his people, one nation, under god, and let us say amen. 203530 >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands. One nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. KRISTI NOEM 203557 NOEM>> Good evening. I'm governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota. I'm here tonight because I believe America is an exceptional nation, founded on three principles: equality, freedom, and opportunity. But today, our founding principles are under attack. This year the choice for Americans is between a man who values these ideals, and all that can be built because of them, and a man who isn't guided by these ideals and coincidentally has built nothing. 203628 Remember, America's battle for Independence and fight for self governance was something that had never been done before. Men of great intellect and wisdom like James Madison, the father of our constitution, hoped our constitutional republic would last for ages, mitigate the problems that would naturally arise from political factions, and prevent tyranny. Madison also authored much of the bill of rights. 203653 Because he understood the natural tendency of government to increasingly encroach on the people's consent, and thus, our freedom. He urged his colleagues to adopt these amendments to enshrine in our Constitution the ideals laid out in the declaration of Independence, that all power comes from the people. That the government is created and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people. Our constitution guarantees the right to speak, to assemble, and to worship. 203725 The right to arm ourselves as a counterbalance to a standing army. And the right to a fair and equitable criminal justice system. We must fight to protect these foundational rights from government interference and indifference. America is unique in the world. Government's power at all levels is limited to the confines of our constitution, which protects our god-given liberties and civil rights. We are not and will not be the subjects of an elite class of so-called experts. 203759 We, the people, are the government. Now at times our country has struggled to live up to our founding principles. Another great American, Abraham Lincoln, knew that struggle better than anybody. When he was just 28 years old, honest Abe saw wild and furious passions worse than savage mobs, he said, taking the place of reason and judgment. He was alarmed by the increasing disregard for the rule of law throughout the country. He was concerned for the people that had seen their property destroyed, their families attacked, and their lives threatened or even taken away. 203837 These good people were becoming tired of and disgusted with a government that offered no protection. Sound familiar? It took 244 years to build this great nation, flaws and all. But we stand to lose it in a tiny fraction of that time, if we continue down the path taken by the Democrats and their radical supporters. From Seattle and Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs. 203910 The violence is rampant. There's looting, chaos, destruction, and murder. People that can afford to flee have fled but the people that can't, good hard-working Americans, are left to fend for themselves. The Republican party's commitment to individual rights and self government is as necessary today as it was in 1860, when we won our first presidential election. 203937 Our party respects individuals based on who they are. We don't divide people based on their belief or their roots. We don't shun people who think for themselves. We respect everyone, equally, under the constitution, and we treat them as Martin Luther King Jr. wished, according to the content of their character, not the color of their skin. 204001 In just four years, President Trump has lifted people of all races and backgrounds out of poverty. He shrunk government. He put money back into the pockets of hard-working, ordinary Americans. He has advanced religious liberty, he protected the second amendment. You can look back 50 years, you won't find anyone that has surpassed President Trump's success on these four issues alone. 204027 History chooses its heros for the time in which they live. At our founding, Madison was one of the chosen. When the nation's very existence was challenged it was Lincoln's turn. Thanks to these men, America is a land of hope. Their examples have been repeated in countless ways by simple Americans following their conscience. But there is another American hero to be recognized. And that is the common American. 204057 This is who president Trump is fighting for. He's fighting for you. SCOTT DANE 204121 DANE>> I'm Scott Dane. I represent loggers and truckers in Minnesota, but I also represent a way of life. Logging's been a part of the great American story from the beginning. In fact. if you go to the capitol rotunda and look up, you can see loggers on one of the panels -- New England settlers carving out a new world from the wilderness. Logging is the most dangerous job in the country, but we embrace that risk because we know America was built by strong people, building things together. America needs us to keep building and we can't wait to be a part of it. 204157 But the last time Joe Biden was in the white house, Minnesota lost nearly half of its mills, thousands of jobs, and experienced nearly a decade of decline. It was a similar story in other parts of the country. The administration just didn't seem to care, and 47 years in Washington, Joe Biden hasn't done anything for the timber industry. When plants close in Duluth, Sartel, Cook, and Bemidji, they were just numbers on paper to the Obama-Biden administration. To me they were people and jobs and families. 204233 Under obama-biden, radical environmentalists were allowed to kill the forest. Wildfire after wildfire shows the consequences. Managed forests, the kind my people work in, are healthy forests. Under president trump, we've seen a new recognition of the value of forest management in reducing wildfires. And we've seen new support for our way of life where a strong back and a strong work ethic can build a strong middle class. 204258 We want to build families where we were raised and stand by communities that stood by us. We want that way of life available for the next generation and we want our forests there, too. President Trump, thank you for helping us do just that. MARSHA BLACKBURN 204335 BLACKBURN>> Hi, I'm US Senator Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee. America is a nation of heroes. In times of difficulty, we're reminded that they're all around us. They're in the line with us at the grocery store, in the pew with us at church. They're the regular American who step up to volunteer and serve when we need them most. 204400 They've stood at the forefront throughout this pandemic. The emergency room nurses who go back shift after shift. 204411 The medical researchers developing a vaccine and therapies to combat what the Chinese communist regime unleashed on the world. Cookville's Double Strings Church of Christ members, lifting our country up in prayer and providing for those impacted by tragedy. But tonight, I want to talk to you about another kind of hero. The kind democrats don't recognize because they don't fit into their narrative. I'm talking about the heroes from law enforcement and armed services. 204453 Leftists turned them into villains. They want to cancel them. But I'm here to tell you, these heroes can't be cancelled. Tennessee is full of them. After all, we're the volunteer state. My dad served in the Army in World War 2. When he came home, he put on another uniform, and for 30 years, volunteered to help our under funded sheriff's department. I'm reminded of him whenever I see compassion and selflessness in others. 204530 When I see law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every single day to keep our community safe, in spite of the hatred thrown at them. When I see the heroes who volunteer to serve our country, putting their lives on the line for their freedom. Many of these heroes call Tennessee home and we could not be more proud of the brave men and women of the 101st airborne division at Fort Campbell. 204605 The common thread between them is a deep seeded desire to serve a cause larger than themselves. They don't believe their country owes them anything. They believe they owe their country and their fellow man. As hard as Democrats try, they can't cancel our heroes. They cannot contest their behavery and they can't dismiss the powerful sense of service that lives deep in their souls. 204643 So they try to defund them -- our military, our police, even ICE -- to take away their tools to keep us safe. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and their radical allies try to destroy these heroes because if there are no heroes to inspire us, government can control us. They close our churches, but keep the liquor stores and abortion clinics open. 204714 They say, we can't gather in community groups, but encourage protests, riots, and looting in the streets. If the Democrats had their way, they would keep you locked in your house until you become dependent on the government for everything. That sounds a lot like communist China to me. Maybe that's why Joe Biden is so soft on them, why Nancy Pelosi says that China would prefer Joe Biden. Yep. I bet they would. 204749 But, President Trump has stood up for our heroes every day. He stood by our law enforcement, our military, and the freedoms we hold dear. He's made good on his promise to put America first. And I hope you will stand with me as we send him back for four more years, with a clear message to the democrats, you will never cancel our heroes. DAN CRENSHAW 204828 CRENSHAW>>> Hi, I'm Congressman Dan Crenshaw. 8 years ago, in the fields of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, a close friend and teammate laid down cover fire against Taliban insurgents so that I could walk, blind and bloodied, to the Med-Evac helicopter, and survive. But he didn't. Dave Orson was killed 2 months later. 204848 He died a hero to this great country. Here's the truth about America: we are a country of heroes. I believe that. So should you. We are a people with a common set of ideals, conceived in liberty. People that have sacrificed, time and time again, for the freedom and freedom of others -- that's something that no country ever, anywhere can claim. 204911 Since 9/11, I've seen America's heroes up close. Some of them saved my life. Some of them saved many others lives. Many of them never made it home. These heroes act as if the whole struggle depended on them alone, as if any weakness on their part would be a reflection of the whole nation. That is called duty. 204930 And America has a long history of it. Our enemies fear us, because Americans can fight for good and we know it. It gives us strength. When our heroes are trusted and equipped, then freedom prevails. The defeat of ISIS was the result of America believing in our heroes. Our president having their backs and rebuilding our military so we'd have what we needed to finish the mission. 204955 The cowering of the Iranian regime and the restoration of the deterrence once lost is the result of America believing in her own might again. America's heroism isn't relegated to the battlefield. Every single day we see them, if you just know where to look. It's the nurse who volunteers for back-to-back shifts caring for covid patients because she feels that's her duty. It's the parent who will relearn algebra because there's no way they are letting their kids fall behind while schools are closed. 205023 And it's the cop that gets spit on one day and will saves a child's life the next. America is the country where the young military wife of two young children answers the unexpected knock at the door, looks the man in uniform in the eye and even as her whole world comes crashing down, she stands up straight, she holds back tears and takes care of her family because she must. 205048 This is what heroism looks like, it's who we are, a nation of heroes. And we need you now more than ever. We need to remind ourselves what heroism really is. Heroism is self-sacrifice. It's not moralizing and lecturing over others when they disagree. Heroism is grace, not perpetual outrage. Heroism is rebuilding our communities, not destroying them. 205115 Heroism is renewing faith in the symbols that unite us, not tearing them down. See, America is a fabric. It's woven from the threads of history's best stories, best attributes, and greatest ideas. The American spirit reflects the oldest and most important virtues: self sacrifice, courage, tolerance, love of country, grace, and passion for human achievement. 205136 We can decide, right now, that American greatness will not be rejected nor squandered. As the American founding was grounded in individual liberty, so will be our future. But if we are to rediscover our strength, then it must be an endeavor undertaken by each and every one of us. We must become the heroes that we so admire. 205158 America was built by them, and our future will be protected by them. It will be protected by you. So, god bless America. GEN KEITH KELLOGG 205215 KELLOGG>> Good evening. I'm retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg. In 1967, at the age of 22, I volunteered to serve my country in Vietnam. From the jungles of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq, I have gone where my nation asked. I have borne witness to soldiers' last moments on Earth, their lives spent in hope and promise of a better future for all Americans. 205246 I was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. I lost friends there that day. In the years that followed, I watched my daughter, son, and son-in-law deploy to Afghanistan. I have looked into the eyes of my grandchildren as they said goodbye to their fathers and hugged them one last time. I lived (?) service. I understand sacrifice. I know leadership. 205315 Over the past 3 1/2 years, I have witnessed every major foreign policy and national security decision by the President. I have been in the room where it happened. I saw only one agenda and one guiding question, when tough calls had to be made: is this decision right for America? When President Donald Trump took office, decades of failed foreign policy had crippled us. 205347 He faced wars without end in sight, creation of failed states like Libya and Syria, a past that allowed a terrorist caliphate to grow, and leadership in Washington that allowed our military to atrophy, while we spent trillions of dollars abroad instead of investing at home. President Trump has reversed the decline of our military, and restructured our national security strategy. 205414 With historic investment and vision, our military is now better equipped, better resourced, and better manned than any military in the world. President Trump demolished the terrorist ISIS caliphate in the Middle East and eliminated its leader, Al baghdadi, one of the world's most brutal terrorists. President Trump took decisive action against Iranian terrorist mastermind, Qasem Soleimani, the man responsible for deaths of hundreds of American servicemen in Iraq. 205450 When our NATO allies failed to meet their commitments as we upheld ours, President Trump demanded parity. NATO members have now increased their contributions over $100 billion this year and NATO's Secretary General credits President Donald J. Trump. President Trump challenged and continues to challenge an ever-increasingly provocative and militant China. But make no mistake, President Trump is no hawk. 205521 He wisely wields the sword when required, but believes in seeking peace instead of perpetual conflict. Just over a week ago, our president brokered a peace agreement between the united Arab Emirates and Israel, the first in the Middle East in over 25 years. And this week, Afghan negotiators, with help from American officials, will start peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government to end America's longest war. 205558 Ask yourself: has this president kept his promises to keep us out of needless conflicts and to pursue ending wars without end? Has he defended your interests in renegotiating trade deals that previously hurt Americans and our national security? Has he fulfilled his commander in chief role by decisively going after the nation's enemies? You and I know the answer is yes. 205629 The choice is clear. This is the most important election of our lifetime. The next four years will decide the course of our country for decades to come. I am asking you to stand up and be counted so we never have to look back and recall what it was once like in America when men and women were free, our families were secure, and we had a president who served the people. 205701 God bless America. Thank you, and good night. TERA MEYERS 205730 MEYERS>> Good evening, my name is Tara Meyers. Tonight I am here as a wife and mother to share how education freedom has personally impacted my family, especially the life of my son Samuel. Before Samuel was even born, I was told his life wouldn't be worth living. When early tests revealed he had down syndrome, our doctor encouraged me to terminate the pregnancy. 205757 He said "if you do not, you will be burdening your life, your family and your community." I knew my baby was a human being created by god, and that made him worthy of life. I am thankful that president Trump values the life of the unborn. When we went to register samuel for kindergarten, we were told to just put him where he would be comfortable. Don't stress him out by trying to teach him. 205825 When we pushed for him to attend his neighborhood school with his sisters, we were told just go home and let us do what we do. When I inquired about functional learning, I was told, this is all you get, like it or not. Well, I did not like it. One size did not fit all. So I helped fight to pass legislation in Ohio, for a special needs scholarship, so that all students could choose the right program for their needs. 205857 I worked to start a new functional learning program at our local private school. Finally, Samuel had an appropriate place to learn. Last December, Samuel was invited to the White House to meet our president and share his thoughts on education freedom. He said, "school choice helped my dreams come true. My school taught me the way I learn best. I was able to fit in. I made many friends. I became a part of my community. My teachers helped me become the best I can be." President Trump shook my hand and said, wonderful job, mom. Your son is amazing. 205939 Unlike the doctor who told me to end Samuel's life before it even began. President trump did not dismiss my son. He showed Samuel he valued him and was proud of what he accomplished. President Trump gave Samuel an equal seat at the table. Tonight I would like to extend my thanks to president trump and his administration for their work toward making every student's dream of a meaningful education a reality. 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 210000 2020 210011 And for fighting to ensure every child in America has an equal seat at the table of education freedom and an equal opportunity in life. Thank you. And may god bless America. [RNC VIDEO "SUFFRAGE"] 210040 VO>> It all started at a tea party, 13 years before the American civil war. Civil unrest and division separated countrymen into two opposing camps: one determined to keep African-American people enslaved. The other, determined to see all people free. 210105 Elizabeth Katie Stanton and Lucretia Mott felt the call to fight for that freedom when they were selected as delegates for an anti slavery convention. But, upon arrival, were told they could not speak or vote at the male dominated event. On July 9, 1848, Mott, Stanton and three other women met for tea. 210127 By the end of the day, they had formed a coalition with the sole purpose of gaining the right for women to vote so they in turn would be free to fight for the freedoms of others. Women across America united and formed activist groups working tirelessly to win the vote for American women. The incomparable Susan B Anthony became one of the most visible leaders of women's suffrage when, in 1872, she registered and voted for every Republican on the ballot. 210158 As punishment for her actions, she was arrested for illegal voting at the request of Susan B. Anthony, Senator A.A. Sargent introduced the 19th amendment in 1878. The Susan B. Anthony Amendment was submitted and defeated five times. But, women continued to fight. Sojourner Truth and many other black suffragettes defied segregation, fighting for all women's voices to be heard and allowed to vote. 210223 For the two years prior to ratification, the silent sentinels quietly picketed the White House. Finally, when Republicans regained control of Congress, on August 26th, 1920, the Equal Suffrage Amendment was signed into law. Women's suffrage movement took 72 years and would change the lives of women forever. The victory was achieved peacefully through the valiant efforts of women patriots and the democratic process. 210252 100 years later in a bold declaration of rights for women, President Trump granted a full pardon to Susan B. Anthony on the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment's ratification. Women's suffrage was born from a desire to fight for the freedom of others. Now, we, the great patriots of America, will band together once again. And with one unified voice, we will vote for freedom. KAYLEIGH MCENANY 210330 MCENANY>> I'm Kayleigh Mcenany. You may know me as a supporter of President Trump. But tonight, I'm here to share with you how he supported me, both as a new mom and as an American with a pre-existing condition. When I was 21 years old, I got a call that changed my life. It was my doctor informing me that I had tested positive for the BRCA2 genetic mutation, a mutation that put my chances of breast cancer at 84%. 210403 It was the same mutation that my mom had, compelling her to get a preventive double mastectomy, removing her breast tissue but protecting her from a disease has taken far too many of our mothers, our sisters, our friends. In my family, eight women alone were diagnosed with breast cancer, several were in their young 20s. I now faced the same prospect. For nearly a decade, I was routinely at Moffitt Cancer Center, getting MRIs, ultrasounds, and necessary surveillance. 210443 During these visits, I cross pathed with brave women battling cancer and fighting through chemotherapy. They were a testament to American strength. They are American heroes. On May 1st, 2018, I followed in my mother's footsteps, choosing to get a preventive mastectomy. I was scared. The night before, I fought back tears as I prepared to lose a piece of myself forever. But the next day with my mom, dad, husband, and Jesus Christ by my side, I underwent a mastectomy, almost eliminating my chance of breast cancer. 210530 A decision I now celebrate. Breast reconstruction has advanced remarkably. While it is an individual's decision, my doctor and I chose a course of surgery that left me virtually unchanged. But more important than physical results, I developed a strength and a confidence that I carry with me. During one of my most difficult times, I expected to have the support of my family, but I had more support than I knew. As I came out of anesthesia, one of the first calls I received was from Ivanka Trump. 210607 As I recovered, my phone rang again. It was president Trump, calling to check on me. I was blown away. Here was the leader of the free world, caring about my circumstance. At the time, I had only met president Trump on a few occasions, but now I know him well. And I can tell you that this president stands by Americans with preexisting conditions. In fact, President Trump called me this morning, I spoke with him several times today, and he told me how proud he was of me for sharing this story. 210646 The same way president Trump has supported me, he supports you. I see it everyday. I've heard him say the hardest part of his job is writing to loved ones of fallen soldiers. I've seen him offer heartfelt outreach to grieving parents who lost their children to crime in the streets. And I have watched them fight for Americans who lost their jobs. President Trump fights for the American people, because he cares about stories like these. I have a nine-month-old daughter. She's a beautiful sweet little girl, and I choose to work for this president for her. 210735 When I look into my baby's eyes, I see a new life, amiracle for which I have a solemn responsibility to protect. That means protecting America's future, a future President Trump will fight for. Where our neighborhoods are protected. Where life is sacred. Where god is cherished, not taken out of our schools, removed from our pledge, and erased from our history. I want my daughter to grow up in President Donald J. Trump's America. 210804 Choosing to have a preventative mastectomy was the hardest decision I ever had to make. But supporting President Trump, who will protect my daughter and our children's future, was the easiest. KAREN PENCE 210851 KAREN PENCE>> Good evening. Karen Pence, my husband is Vice President Mike Pence. 100 years ago, today, the 19th amendment was adopted into the United States constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Because of heroes like Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone, women today -- like our daughters Audrey and Charlotte -- and future generations will have their voices heard and their votes count. 210921 The women's suffrage movement was the gateway that led to women having the opportunities to achieve monumental milestones and accomplish significant achievements in both civic and governmental roles. This evening, we look at heroes in our land. As Second Lady of the United States for the past three and a half years, I have had the honor of meeting many heroes across this great country. The Pences are a military family. 210955 Our son Michael serves in the United States Marines. And our son-in-law Henry serves in the US Navy. And one of my key initiatives is to elevate and encourage military spouses. These men and women like our daughter Charlotte and our daughter-in-law Sarah are the home front heroes. I have been privileged to hear so many stories of selfless support, volunteer spirit and great contributions to the armed forces and our communities. 211029 You know, military spouses may experience frequent moves and job changes, periods of being a single parent while their loved one is deployed, all while exhibiting pride, strength and determination and being a part of something bigger than themselves. To all of the military spouses, thank you. President Trump and Vice President Pence have been supporting our United States armed forces including our military families on a significant scale. 211103 While traveling throughout our nation to educate military spouses about policy solutions that President Trump has promoted involving real, tangible progress in military spouse employment, I have been inspired to meet heroes like Lisa Bradley and Cameron Cruz. 211126 These military spouses decided to start their own business R-Riveter, named after the Rosie the Riveter campaign used to recruit women workers during World War II. R-Riveter makes beautiful handbags designed and manufactured exclusively by military spouses. And many of those spouses live all over the country. They prepare and send their section of the bags to the company located in North Carolina where the final product is assembled. 211158 Military spouse hero Jilan Hall-Johnson in Billings, Montana, is a culinary artist who had dreamed of starting her own restaurant. Working with the small business administration's development center, Jilan started her restaurant, the Sassy Biscuit. 211218 And she just opened a second restaurant in Dover, New Hampshire. And as the second lady, I've also been able to bring awareness to a form of therapy for our heroic veterans suffering from PTSD. Art therapy facilitated by a professional art therapist is especially effective with posttraumatic stress disorder. Master gunnery sergeant Chris Stowe a marine veteran I met in Tampa, who deployed for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, said nothing had helped him deal with the trauma from his service in the Marines, until he finally agreed to meet with the art therapist at Walter Reed medical center 211305 Chris credits art therapy with saving his marriage and his life. And Chris went on to establish a glass blowing workshop to help other Vets. Many of our veteran heroes struggle as they transition back into civilian life. And, sometimes, the stress is too difficult to manage alone. A few weeks ago, I had the honor of speaking with some amazing Americans who answer the Veterans Crisis Line. 211335 One, in particular, Sydney Morgan, especially impacted me. A veteran herself, Sydney said, it is the highest honor of her life, until they physically walk into a clinic to receive help they deserve, and she can pass their hand to someone ready to help. 211358 In these difficult time, we've all seen so many examples of everyday Americans reaching out a hand to those in need. Those who, in humility, have considered others more important than themselves. We've seen health care workers, teachers, first responders, mental health providers, law enforcement officers, grocery and delivery workers and farmers. 211427 And so many others. Heroes, all. 100 years ago women secured the right to vote, so let's vote, America. Let's honor our heroes. Let's re-elect president trump and vice president pence for four more years. God bless our heroes, and god bless the United States of America. 211458 VO>> We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. KELLYANNE CONWAY 211517 CONWAY>> Good evening. I'm Kellyanne Conway. 100 years ago, courageous warriors helped women secure the right to vote. This has been a century worth celebrating, but also a reminder that our democracy is young and fragile. A woman in a leadership role can still seem novel. Not so for President Trump. For decades, he has elevated women to senior positions in business and in government. 211547 He confides in and consults us, respects our opinions, and insists that we are on equal footing with the men. President Trump helped me shatter a barrier in the world of politics by empowering me to manage his campaign to its successful conclusion.With the help of millions of Americans, our team defied the critics, the naysayers, the conventional wisdom and we won. For many of us, women's empowerment is not a slogan. 211617 It comes not from strangers on social media orr sanitized language in a corporate handbook. It comes from the everyday heroes who nurture us, who shape us, and who believe in us. I was raised in a household of all women. They were self-reliant and resilient. Their lives were not easy. But they never complained. Money was tight, but we had an abundance of what mattered most, family, faith and freedom. 211652 I learned that, in America, limited means does not make for limited dreams. The promise of America belongs to us all. This is a land of inventors and innovators, of entrepreneurs and educators, of pioneers and parents -- each contributing to the success and the future of a great nation and her people. These everyday heroes have a champion in President Trump. 211725 The teacher who took extra time to help students adjust to months of virtual learning. The nurse who finished a 12-hour COVID shift and then took a brief break only to change her mask, gown, and gloves to do it all over again. The small business owner striving to reopen after the lockdown was lifted and then again after her store was vandalized and looted. 211753 The single mom with two kids, two jobs, two commutes, who ten years after that empty promise, finally has health insurance. President Trump and vice president Pence have lifted Americans, provided them with dignity, opportunity and results. I have seen firsthand many times the president comforting and encouraging a child who has lost a parent, a parent who has lost a child, a worker who lost his job, an adolescent who lost her way to drugs. 211836 "Don't lose hope," he has told them, assuring them that they are not alone, and that they matter. There always will be people who have far more than us. Our responsibility is to focus on those who have far less than us. President Trump has done precisely that, in taking unprecedented action to combat this nation's drug crisis. 211903 He told me, this is so important, Kellyanne, so many lives have been ruined by addiction, and we'll never even know it, because people are ashamed to reach out for help, and they're not even sure who to turn to in their toughest hour. Rather than look the other way, President Trump stared directly at this drug crisis next door and through landmark bitarsian legislation has helped secure historic investments in surveillance, interdiction, education, prevention, treatment and recovery. 211936 We have a long way to go, but the political inertia that cost lives and the silence and the stigma that prevents people in need from coming forward is melting away. This is the man I know and the president we need for four more years. He picks the toughest fights and tackles the most complex problems. 212001 He has stood by me, and he will stand up for you. In honor of the women who empowered me and for the future of the children we all cherish, thank you and God bless you, always. DIDI BURN 212033 DIDI BURN>> Good evening. I'm sister Didi Burn and I belong to the community of the Little Workers of the Sacred Heart's of Jesus and Mary. Last 4th of July, I was honored to be one of the president's guests at his salute to America celebration. I must confess that I recently prayed while in chapel, begging God to allow me to be a voice and instrument for human life. And now, here I am, speaking at the Republican National Convention. I guess you better be careful for what you pray for. My journey towards religious life is not a traditional route, if there is such a thing. 212111 In 1978, as a medical stud-- school student at Georgetown University, I joined the Army to help pay for my tuition, and ended up devoting 29 years to the military, serving as a doctor and a surgeon in places like Afghanistan and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. After much prayer and contemplation, I entered my religious order in 2002, working to serve the poor and the sick in Haiti, Sudan, Kenya, Iraq, and in Washington, D.C. 212144 Humility is at the foundation of our order which makes it difficult to talk about myself, but I can speak about my experience working for those fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries all around the world. Those refugees all share a common experience. They have been all marginalized, viewed as insignificant, powerless and voiceless. And while we tend to think of the marginalized as living beyond our borders, the truth is the largest marginalized group in the world can be found here in the United States. 212220 They are the unborn. As Christians we first met Jesus as a stirring embryo in the womb of an unwed mother and saw him born nine months later in the poverty of a cave. It's no coincidence that Jesus stood up for what was just and ultimately crucified because what he said wasn't politically correct or fashionable. 212244 As followers of Christ, we are called to stand up for life against the politically correct or fashionable of today. We must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb. Keep in mind, the laws we create define how we see our humanity, and we must ask ourselves: what are we saying when we go into a womb and snuff out an innocent, powerless voice's life? 212315 As a physician, I can say without hesitation: life begins at conception. While what I have to say may be difficult for some to hear, I am saying it because I'm not just pro-life, I'm pro eternal life. And I want all of us to end up in heaven together some day. Which brings me to why I'm here today -- Donald Trump is the most pro-life President that this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages. 212345 His belief in the sanctity of life transcends politics. President Trump will stand up against Biden-Harris who are the most anti-life Presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late-term abortion and infanticide. Because of his courage and conviction, President Trump has earned the support of America's pro-life community. 212410 Moreover, he has a nation wide of religions standing behind him. You'll find us with our weapon of choice, the rosary. So thank you Mr. President, we are all praying for you. LOU HOLTZ 212429 HOLTZ>> I'm Lou Holtz. Many of you know me as Coach Holtz, or maybe that football guy. It is a pleasure, a blessing, and an honor, for me to explain why I believe that President Trump is a consistent winner, an outstanding leader, and deserves to be re-elected as our president. First, I want you to know that I grew up in a one-bedroom house in West Virginia. I may have been poor, but the lessons my parents taught me were priceless. 212500 They taught me that life is about making choices. Wherever you are, good or bad, don't blame anyone else. Go get an education, get to work. You can overcome any obstacles. And always remember, that in this great country of ours, anyone can amount to something special. I lived by those principles of hard work, and responsibility my whole life. 212526 Living out the the American story, and it works. But there are people today like politicians, professors, protesters, and of course president trump's nay-sayers in the media who like to blame others for problems. They don't have pride in our country. They make us say no longer ask, what can I do for my country? Only what the country should be doing for them. They don't have pride in themselves. That's wrong. 212600 When I was an officer in the army, I served with so many great Americans who embraced the responsibility to our country. I'm so proud of their sacrifices and the opportunity it has provided for so many millions. America remains a land of opportunity, no matter what the other side says or believes. You know, there's a statue of me at Notre Dame. I guess they needed a place for the pigeons to land. 212629 But if you look closely, you will see these three words there: trust, commitment, and love. All my life, I have made my choices based on these three words. I use these three rules to make choices about everything. My beloved wife of 59 years, athletes I coached, and of course, politicians. Even President Trump. I ask myself three things. 212657 One, can I trust them? When a leader tells you something, you gotta be able to count on it. That is President Trump. He says what he means, he means what he says, and he's done what he said he would do at every single turn. One of the important reasons he has my trust is because nobody has been a stronger advocate for the unborn than President Trump. 212723 The Biden-Harris ticket is the most radically pro-abortion campaign in history. They and other politicians are Catholic in name only, and abandoned innocent lives. 212737 President Trump protects those lives. I trust President Trump. The second question I ask is are they committed to doing their very best? President Trump always finds a way to get something done. If you want to do something bad enough, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse. And excuses are a lot easier to find than solutions. 212805 President Trump finds solutions, president trump is committed. The third question I ask is do they love people? Do they care about others? To me this is very clear. President trump has demonstrated through his prison reform, advocating for school choice, and welfare reform. He wants Americans from all walks of life to have the opportunity to succeed and live the American dream. President trump loves our country and our great people. Trust, commitment, and love. In President trump we have a president we can trust, who works hard at making America greater. 212850 And who genuinely cares about people. If I apply this test to Joe Biden, I can't say yes to any of these three questions. I used to ask our athletes at notre dame "if you did not show up, who would miss you and why?" Can you imagine what would happen to us if president trump had not shown up in 2016 to run for president? I'm so glad he showed up. 212919 Thank you for showing up, Mr. President. I encourage everyone who loves this country, who loves America, to show up in November for President Trump. Thank you. MICHAEL MCHALE 212938 MCHALE>> Hi, I'm Michael McHale, but my friends call me "Mick." I'm a 30 active duty member of law enforcement in the state of Florida. I am also the president of the national association of police organizations, NAPO. Our organization recently endorsed Donald Trump for re-election as President of the United States. Our endorsement recognized his strong support for the men and women on the front lines, particularly during these challenging times. 213010 We value his support of aggressive prosecution of those who attack our police officers. His signing of the law enforcement mental health and wellness act and his support for permanently authorizing funds to support 9/11 first responders and their families. Law enforcement officers across the nation take an oath to run towards danger when everyone else is running away. They do so willingly to protect our families and communities. 213046 I'm proud that the overwhelming majority of American police officers are the best of the best and put their lives on the line without hesitation. And good officers need to know their elected leaders, and the department brass, have their backs. Unfortunately, chaos results when failed officials in cities like Portland, Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York make the conscious decision not to support law enforcement. 213120 Shootings, murders, looting, rioting occur unabated. The violence and bloodshed we are seeing in these and other cities isn't happening by chance. 213132 It's the direct result of refusing to allow law enforcement to protect our communities. Joe Biden has turned his candidacy over to the far Left, anti-law enforcement radicals. And as a Senator, Kamala Harris pushed to further restrict police, cut their training, and make our American communities and streets even more dangerous than they already are. 213202 Conversely, President Trump supports the creation of a national standard for training on deescalation and communication to give officers more tools to resolve conflict without violence. The differences between Trump-Pence and Biden-Harris are crystal clear. Your choices are the most pro law enforcement president we've ever had, or the most radical anti-police ticket in history. 213239 We invite those who value the safety of their family and loved ones to join the hundreds of thousands of members of the national association of police organizations and support the re-election of president Donald J. Trump. Thank you and god bless America. ELISE STEFANIK 213315 STEFANIK>> I'm Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, and I'm honored to represent New York's 21st Congressional District, the cradle of the American revolution. It's where, almost 250 years ago, brave patriots fought in the battles of Saratoga to turn the tide of the revolutionary war. It's where, 40 years ago in Lake Placid, a team of amateur hockey players out hustled, outskated, and defeated the Soviet Union, stunning the world and giving up the unforgettable miracle on ice. 213349 And today, it's home to fort Drumm and the historic tenth mountain division, the most deployed unit in the U.S. army since 9/11, where I saw first hand president trump graciously thank and honor our men and women in uniform and sign the largest pay raise for our troops in a decade. 213406 Since our nation's founding generation after generation of everyday Americans served and sacrificed to preserve and strengthen the American dream. The vision of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and the idea that if you work hard and dream big, you can achieve anything you imagine. I believe in the American dream because I've lived it. Like millions of Americans, I grew up in a small business family where I learned the values of hard work and determination. 213441 I was the first person in my immediate family to graduate from college, ran for Congress to serve upstate New York, and am proudly the youngest Republican woman elected to Congress in history. I am honored to support President Trump for re-election because I know that he is the only candidate who will stand up for hard working families and protect the American dream for future generations. 213509 Since his first day in office, President Trump has fought tirelessly to deliver results for all Americans, despite the Democrats' baseless and illegal impeachment sham and the media's endless obsession with it. 213523 I was proud to lead the effort standing up for the constitution, President trump, and most importantly the American people. This attack was not just on the president. It was an attack on you, your voice and your vote. But the American people were not swayed by these partisan attacks. Our support for president trump is stronger than ever before. 213547 We know what's at stake in this historic election. Americans from all walks of life are unified in support of our president. It's why more Republican women than ever are running for office this year. We understand that this election is a choice between the far left democratic socialist agenda versus protecting and preserving the American dream. President Trump is working to safely reopen our main street economy. 213617 He understands that the engine of our country is fuelled by the ingenuity and determination of American workers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. Joe Biden wants to keep them locked up in the basement and crush them with $4 trillion in new taxes. We face a critical choice. Joe Biden's far left failed policies of the past 47 years, or president Trump who will stand up for the American people and the constitution. 213649 I believe in the wisdom and spirit of the American people to elect the only candidate who is capable of protecting the American dream. President Donald J. Trump. Thank you to the north country for the opportunity to serve as your voice supporting his re-election. God bless the United States of America, the greatest country on Earth. MADISON CAWTHORN 213726 HAWTHORNE>> Good evening. I'm Madison Hawthorne, and I'm running to represent North Carolina's 11th Congressional District. This is a time of great adversity for our country, and I know something about adversity. At 18 years old, I was in a horrific car accident that's left me paralyzed from the waist down. Instantly, my hopes and dreams were seemingly destroyed. I was given a 1% chance of surviving. But thanks to the power of prayer, a very loving community and many skilled doctors, I made it. It took me over a year to recover. 213800 My first public outing in a wheelchair was to a professional baseball game. You know, before my accident I was 6'3". I stood out in a crowd. But as I wheeled through the stadium I felt invisible. At 20, I thought about giving up. However, I knew I could still make a difference. You know, my accident has given me new eyes to see and new ears to hear. God protected my mind and my ability to speak. So I say to people who feel forgotten, ignored and invisible, I see you. I hear you. 213835 At 20, I made a choice and 2020, our country has a choice. We can give up on the American idea or we can work together to make our imperfect union more perfect. I choose to fight for the future, to seize the high ground and retake the shining city on a hall. While the radical left wants to dismantle, defund and destroy, Republicans under president trump's leadership want to rebuild, restore and renew. 213905 I just turned 25. When I'm elected this November, I'll be the youngest member of Congress in over 200 years. And if you don't think young people can change the world, then you just don't know American history. George Washington was 21 when he received his first military commission. Abe Lincoln, 22, when he first ran for office. And my personal favorite, James Madison was just 25 years old when he signed the declaration of Independence. 213932 In times of peril, young people have stepped up and saved this country, abroad and at home. We held the line, scaled the cliffs, crossed oceans, liberated camps, and cracked codes. Yet today, political forces want to usher in the digital dark ages. A time of information without wisdom. And tribalism without truth. National leaders on the left have normalized emotion-based voting and radicalized identity politics that rejects Martin Luther King's dream. 214004 MLK's dream is our dream, for all Americans to be judged solely on their character. Millions of people risk their lives every year to come here, because they believe in the dream of MLK and the American dream. Join us as, we, the party of freedom, double down on ensuring the American dream for all people. We are committed to building a new town square. It welcomes all ideas and all people. 214031 Here we will have freedom of speech, not freedom from speech. To liberals, I say let's have a conversation. Be a true liberal, listen to other ideas and let the best one prevail. And to conservatives, I say let's define what we support and win the argument in areas like healthcare and on the environment. In this new town square, you don't have to apologize for your beliefs or cower to a mob. You can kneel before god but stand for our flag. 214103 The American idea my ancestors fought for during the revolutionary war, is just as exciting and revolutionary today as it was 250 years ago. I say to Americans who love our country, young and old, be a radical for freedom. Be a radical for liberty. 214123 [HAWTHORNE STANDS] And be a radical for our republic, for which I stand. One nation, under god, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you and may god bless America. JACK BREWER 214155 BREWER>> I'm Jack Brewer, a former 3 time NFL team captain, College professor, coach, husband, son and father. I'm also a lifelong Democrat, but I support Donald Trump. Let me be clear: I didn't come here for the popularity or the praise, the likes or the retweets. I'm here as a servant to god, a servant to the people of our nation and a servant to our president. 214223 I grew up in Grapevine, Texas, a town that my great grandfather was the first black man to settle, as a sharecropper in 1896. My early high school experience included fighting with skinheads and being the witness in an attempted murder trial after my friend shot a skinhead in self-defense. I remember my dad's bravery when he personally stood up against a KKK rally in my town. 214247 In my house, my father taught me to back down for no one. I know what racism looks like. I've seen it first hand. In America, it has no resemblance to president trump. And I'm fed up with the way he's portrayed in the media, who refuse to acknowledge what he's actually done for the Black community. 214306 It's confusing the minds of our innocent children. Before I left to come to deliver this message my energetic 8 year old son, Jackson, stopped me and said, "dad, can you please just tell everyone that all lives need to matter, and that god loves everyone?" In that moment, I realized that my 8-year-old had figured out what so many adults have seemed to forget. We are not as divided as our politics suggest. 214337 At some point for the sake of our children, the policies must take priority over the personalities. So because you have an issue with president trump's tone you are going to allow Biden and Harris to deny our underserved black and brown children school choice? Are we so offended by the president's campaign slogan, make America great again, we're going to ignore that Joe Biden and kamala Harris have collectively been responsible for locking up countless black men for nonviolent crimes. 214410 Are you going to allow the media to lie to you by falsely claiming that he said there are very fine white supremacists in Charlottesville? That's a lie. And ignore the so-called black lives matter organization that openly, on their website, calls for the destruction of the nuclear family. My fellow Americans, our families need each other. We need black fathers in the homes with their wives and children. The future of our communities depends on it. 214443 I'm blessed to be able to run inner city youth programs and to also teach in prisons across America. The inmates in my federal prison program literally receive days off their sentence just for attending my class. And that's thanks to President Donald J. Trump and his First Step Act. President Trump cared about these Americans and their families, even when so many others had left them behind and had written them off. I'm forever grateful for President Trump for that. He endures relentless attacks and so do many of us, like myself, who support him. 214519 But my mama always told me when the lord starts blessing, the devil starts messing. This convention marks a time to celebrate our history. Republicans are the party that freed the slaves and the party that put the first Black men and women in congress. It's the party of Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. And now, Tim Scott and Donald Trump. Our president has made incredible strides to end mass incarceration and give unprecedented opportunities for Black [people], in America, to rise. 214554 America, let this election be a call for all god's people who are called by His name to humble ourselves and pray together, and to seek his face and to turn from our wicked ways. Then he will hear us from heaven and he will forgive our sins and he will heal our land. Amen, and god bless America. CHEN GUANGCHENG 214644 GUANGCHENG>> Greetings. My name is Chen Guangcheng. Standing up to tyranny is not easy. I know. When I spoke out against China's one child policy, and other injustices, I was prosecuted, beaten, sent to prison and put under house arrest by the Chinese communist party, the CCP. 214717 In April 2005 I escaped and was given shelter in the American embassy in beijing. I'm forever grateful to the American people for bringing me and my family to the United States where we are now free. CCP is an enemy of humanity. 214750 It is terrorizing its own people, and it is threatening the well being of the world. In China, expressing belief or ideas not approved by the CCP -- religion, democracy, human rights -- can lead to prison. 214818 The nation lies (?) under mass surveillance and censorship. The U.S. must use its values of freedom, democracy, and the role of law to gather a coalition of other democracies to stop CCP's aggression. President Trump has led on this, and we need the other countries to join him in this fight. 214856 A fight for our future. Standing up to fight and fairness isn't easy. I know. So does President Trump. But he has shown the courage to lead that fight. We need to support, vote, and fight for President Trump for the sake of the world. Thank you. LEE ZELDIN 214936 ZELDIN>> I'm congressman Lee zeldin. Tonight, as we celebrate America as a land of heros I'm here at a VFW post of heros in west Hampton beach, New York. I've seen amazing Americans in action, raised in a law enforcement family, deployed to Iraq as an 82nd airborne paratrooper and serving today in the army reserve. My generation, of post-9/11 veterans, has huge shoes to fill, following our greatest generation that fought tyranny, and saved the world. 215011 All over our country, everyday heroes serve and sacrifice for the greater good. Farmer, truckers, craftsmen, the heroes keep America running. Craftsmen and President trump fights for them every day. This year we have especially relied on one particular group of heroes, front line medical workers. My twin daughters, Michaela and Arianna, were born over 14 weeks early. They weighed just a pound and a half. At two weeks, Michaela went into septic shock, had a stroke, and underwent brain surgery leaving one-third of the left side of her brain a hole. 215054 Her doctors didn't believe Michaela would survive, fearing dire permanent consequences even if she did. Through the miracles of modern medicine, the power of prayer, and her will to live, my daughters are now starting high school and doing great, with no long-term effects from those frightful months in the NICU. So when I learned my county's PPE stockpile was depleted, I immediately thought of those healthcare workers who saved my baby girls. 215125 Jared Kushner and I were on the phone late into that Saturday night. The very next day, President Trump announced he was sending us 200,000 N-95 masks. He actually delivered almost 400,000. That number quickly grew to 1.2 million masks, gowns, and more. The President sent thousands of ventilators to New York. He deployed the USS Comfort and converted the Javits center to a field hospital. 215156 His administration authorized our lab testing requests at blinding speed. During a once in a century pandemic, an unforeseeable crisis sent to us from a far away land, the president's effort for New York was phenomenal. 215214 For our nation to emerge even stronger, more prosperous, freer, and more secure than ever; to make our country greater than ever before, we must re-elect president trump. We are the land of the free because of the brave. And we are the land of opportunity because we have a president who wants to empower the best of who we are to be the best of what we can be. 215241 There's never been a nation greater than ours. Never a people more resilient than ours. And never a future for America more promising than ours right now. Keeping America great is up to us. And losing is not an option. [RNC VIDEO] 215305 >> And I'm very proud, very proud to have President Trump in office here, because he's the best we've ever had. He's done the most for any president ever done. >> He's always there trying to take care of veterans, giving veterans what they need. >> The turnaround times have increased since Trump has taken over. >> You had to fight 15 years for benefits. But once he came into office, you had like 90 days, you turned your paperwork in, at least you had some kind of answer. 215330 >> I waited months for a signature on a piece of paper to get a prosthetic leg fixed. Now it's an a lot better turn around, but before it was a five-year waiting process to appeal. How long do we have to wait for benefits? 215344 >> I waited 20 years to file, rapidly was approved for medical, and then right -- turned right around and got disability. I was thinking it was going to be several years worth of waiting to hear. >> He's accomplished a lot in 3 1/2 years. And it helps the American people, and he has done a lot for veterans, for the middle class. >> I chose to serve my country. If I could do it, I would do it all over again, especially for this president. I mean, he's the kind of president you'd run through a brick wall if he asked you to. 215415 >> Went through many presidents but this one I can say is the best president we've ever had and ever will have, I believe. JONI ERNST 215434 ERNST>> Hello, everyone, and thank you for inviting me into your home this evening. It's truly a privilege. My name is Joni Ersnt. I was raised on a small family farm here in Iowa where I learned the importance of faith, hard work, and service. I worked my way through college, then dedicated my life to serving my country, as a local official, a battalion commander in the military, and as a U.S. Senator. Service, it's more than a word to me. It's a mission, a way of life. It's what brought me to cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2008 when I was in the National Guard. 215515 We saw historic floods that swept through the communities. We lent a helping hand to our fellow Iowans who were literally under water. We thought we had seen the worst, but 12 years later, these same communities have faced an even more devastating disaster, the recent Derecho storm. If you don't live in Iowa, you may not have heard much about it at first. While reporters here in the state were in the trenches covering the equivalent of a category 2 hurricane, most of the national media looked the other way. 215552 To them, Iowa is still just flyover country. Houses, farms were destroyed. About one third of our crops here were damaged. In some cases, these storms wiped out a lifetime of work. And yet, Iowa farmers didn't hesitate to grab their chainsaws and check on their neighbors. Our farmers live every day with that sense of service. The stewards of the land. The ones who feed and fuel the world. 215623 President trump quickly signed an emergency declaration for Iowa to provide relief. And of course when president trump came to Cedar Rapids, the national media finally did too. For years I've worked closely with the president for farmers in Iowa and across the country. We scrapped Obama and Biden's punishing waters of the United States rule which would have regulated about 97% of land in Iowa. 215652 In some cases, even puddles. It would have been a nightmare for farmers. The President delivered on major trade deals with Japan, and the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement. And he implemented the sale of E-15 fuel, year-round. That means more choices for you at the pump, and more jobs for farmers in the heartland. This is something the Obama-Biden administration failed to do in eight years. In fact, I can't recall an administration more hostile to farmers than Obama-Biden, unless you count the Biden-Harris ticket. 215731 The democratic party of Joe Biden is pushing this so-called green new deal. If given power, they would essentially ban animal agriculture and eliminate gas-powered cars. It would destroy the agriculture industry, not just here in Iowa, but throughout the country . When the pandemic hit president trump heard us and our call for assistance for our farmers. 215755 Knowing we have an ally in the white house is important. Folks, this election is a choice between two very different paths. Freedom, prosperity, and economic growth under a trump-pence administration. Or the biden-harris path, paved by liberal, coastal elites and radical environmentalists. And America, where farmers are punished, jobs are destroyed, and taxes crush the middle class. 215827 That is our choice and it's a clear one. Thank you. And god bless. BURGESS OWENS 215840 OWENS>> Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Burgess Owens. Shackled in the belly of a slave ship, an 8-year-old boy named (?) Burgess came to America to be sold on an auction block. By the grace of god and the courage of slaves who believed in freedom, (?) escaped through the underground railroad and settled in the great state of Texas. He wanted to become a successful entrepreneur. He built his community's first church, first elementary school, and purchased 102 acres of farmland which he paid off in two years. 215911 I'm here today, a candidate for Congress, because my great, great grandfather Salas Burgess. I was raised in the South during the days of Jim Crow and the KKK. He went through the challenges of segregation. We were taught that anything is possible in America. When I was 22 years old, I thought all my dreams would come true when I was drafted by the New York Jets. 10 years later, with a pro-Bowl nod and a Super Bowl championship under my belt, I left the NFL to start a business. 215941 I thought I could never fail, but years later, I did and I lost everything. As I moved my family of 6 into a one-bedroom, basement apartment in Brooklyn, New York, I had a choice to make: feel sorry for myself or get to work. I worked as a chimney sweep during the day and a security guard at night. It was humbling to be recognized cleaning a chimney by someone who has cheered me as an NFL fan but those hard days would pay off. Eventually, I started a career -- a rewarding career in the corporate world. 220013 We live in a country where we are encouraged to dream big. Second chances are at the core of our American DNA. We don't hear that same message from Nancy Pelosi's congress, career politicians, elitists and even a former bartender who want us to believe it's impossible. They want us to believe what I did, what my great-great grandfather did is impossible for ordinary americans. As patriots, we know better. This November we stand at a crossroads. Mobs torch our cities while popular members of congress promotes the same socialism that my father fought against in world war II. We have a democratic candidate for president who says that I'm not black if I don't vote for him. 220055 Now, more than ever, we need leaders who stand by their principles and won't compromise their values for political opportunities. Now, more than ever, we need leaders who will stand up to the lawlessness supported by the radical left. This November, we have an opportunity to reject the mob mentality, and once again be the America that my great-great grandfather believed in. During the Trump administration, business ownership among blacks, hispanics, and females have reached all time highs. 220125 Those same groups enjoyed record low unemployment and unprecedented prosperity. And we're just getting started. I ran for congress because we don't need more career politicians. We need a few more chimney sweeps. We need more leaders like president Trump, who understands the freedoms that make up the fabric of America. My fellow Americans, specifically my Democrat and Independent friends, it is now time for us to unite and put aside partisan barriers. Help us win back the House, keep the Senate, and give our president 4 more years. 220201 And I promise you, we will make you proud. Thank you, and God bless the United States of America. [RNC VIDEO] 220216 VO>> Standing guard over Baltimore Harbor is the remains of an Earthen star. A relic of time passed. It recalls a time when the spirit of liberty stirred in men of renown, who stood in the gap against the most powerful force in the world. 27 hours. One thousand men, low on ammunition, firing scrap metal. The battle raged. 220242 Insurmountable odds. A darkness fell upon this new nation. In the midst of the fight, the heroes of Fort McHenry were unmoved. The light of dawn overcame the darkness. The gallant flag hoisted above Fort McHenry, torn and battered, stood, victoriously observing a dejected enemy slowly retreating into the rising sun, inspiring the anthem of our nation. 220313 The spirit of Liberty, not to be denied. The Earthen star, Fort McHenry, a reminder of those brave patriots who having done all, stood and prevailed. It is why we stand today, honoring past present and future generations of freedom loving Americans when we hear the anthem and raise the star spangled banner. LARA TRUMP 220347 LARA TRUMP>> Good evening, America. I'm Lara Trump, daughter of Bob and Linda (?), sister to Kyle, mother to Luke and Carolina and the daughter-in-law of our 45th president, Donald J. Trump. But tonight I come to you simply as an American. My life began like many in our country. I grew up in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. My parents were small business owners and worked hard to make sure that my brother and I had everything we needed but not everything we wanted. 220419 My parents raised me to believe that in America I could achieve anything with hard work and determination. The opportunities available to me were limited only by the size of my ambition. That I should dream big and I did. Those very dreams are what led me to New York City. I heard the adage, if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere and I intended to do just that. Never in a million years did I think I would be on this stage tonight and certainly never thought I would end up with the last name "Trump." 220453 My seventh grade English teacher, Mrs. B, used to tell us, believe none of what you hear, half of what you read, and only what you're there to witness first hand. The meaning of those words never fully weighed on me until I met my husband and the Trump family. Any preconceived notion I had of this family disappeared immediately. They were warm and caring. They were hard workers. And they were down to Earth. They reminded me of my own family. They made me feel like I was home. Walking the halls of the Trump organization, I saw the same family environment. 220530 I also saw the countless women executives who thrived there year after year. Gender didn't matter. What mattered was the ability to get the job done. I learned this directly when, in 2016, my father-in-law asked me to help him win my cherished home state and my daughter's namesake, North Carolina. Though I had no political experience, he believed in me. He knew I was capable even if I didn't. 220558 So it didn't surprise me when president Donald Trump appointed so many women to senior level positions in his administration -- Secretary of the United Nations, secretary of the air force, the first female CIA director, the first black female director of the fish and wildlife service and countless ambassadors just to name a few. Under President Trump's leadership, women's unemployment hit the lowest level since World War II. 220624 4.3 million new jobs have been created for women. In 2019 alone, women took over 70% of all new jobs. Female small business ownership remains at an all-time high, and 600,000 women have been lifted out of poverty, all since President Trump took office. 220643 He didn't do these things to gain a vote or check a box. He did them because they're the right things to do. 100 years ago today, the 19th amendment was ratified, granting the right to vote to every American woman. And since that day, incredible strides have been made by women in America. From Amelia Erhardt to Rosa parks and Sally Ride, women shaped our history and are part of what has made our country the most exceptional nation in the world. 220714 I often think back to my 24-year-old self driving alone in my car from North Carolina to New York City. And I think about what I'd tell myself now as we head towards the most critical election in modern history. This is not just a choice between Republican and Democrat or left and right. This is an election that will decide if we keep America America or if we head down an uncharted frightening path to socialism. 220743 Abraham Lincoln once famously said, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." While those words were spoken over 150 years ago, never have they been more relevant. Will we choose the right path and maintain the unique freedoms and boundless opportunities that make this country the greatest in the history of the world? 220811 Will we remain the beacon of hope for those around the world fighting oppression, communism, and tyranny? The choice is ours. I know the promise of America, because I've lived it. Not just as a member of the Trump family, but as a woman who knows what it's like to work in blue collar jobs, to serve customers for tips, and to aspire to rise. When I look at my son Luke and my daughter Carolina, I wonder, what sort of country will I be leaving for them, for our future generations? 220843 In recent months, we've seen weak, spineless politicians seek control of our great American cities to violent mobs. Defund the police is the rallying cry for the new radical Democrat party. 220857 Joe Biden will not do what it takes to maintain order, to keep our children safe in our neighborhoods and in their schools, to restore our American way of life. We cannot dare to dream our biggest dreams for ourselves or for our children while consumed by worry about the safety of our families. President Trump is the law and order president, from our borders to our backyards. President Trump will keep America safe. President Trump will keep America prosperous. 220927 President Trump will keep America America. If you're watching tonight and wrestling with your vote on November 3, I implore you, tune out the distorted news and bias commentary and hear it straight from someone who knows. I wasn't born a trump. I'm from the south, I was raised a Carolina girl. I went to public schools and worked my way through a state university. Mrs. B from my seventh grade English class was right. 220957 What I learned about our president is different than what you might have heard. I learned that he's a good man. That he loves his family. That he didn't need this job. That no one on Earth works harder for the American people. That he's willing to fight for his beliefs and for the people and the country that he loves. 221018 He's a person of conviction. He's a fighter and will never stop fighting for America. He will uphold our values. He will preserve our families and he will build upon the great American edict that our union will never be perfect until opportunity is equal for all, including and especially for women. 221040 Our 40th president, Ronald Reagan, said it best: "The dreams of people may differ, but everybody wants their dreams to come true." And America, above all places, gives us the freedom to do that. It's up to us to keep this country a place where no dream is out of reach for our children and generations beyond. To my father-in-law, thank you for believing in me. 221105 Thank you for bravely leading this country and thank you for continuing to fight every day for America. May god bless and protect the Gulf states in the path of the hurricane. May god bless our troops, and may god continue to bless this incredible country. SAM VIGIL 221140 VIGIL>> Good evening. My name is Sam Vigil. There is a hole in my heart since my beloved Jackie was taken from me. This is her story. There were two things that Jackie loved to do every day. One was to go to the gym and tweet out bible verses and prayers to her friends. On November 19, the tweets stopped. That day started out like any other day. She left for the gym early in the morning. I heard the garage door open. Seconds later, I heard the car horn. 221212 I went outside to see if she had forgotten something. What I saw was a jeep blocking her car in the driveway. I noticed the bullet hole in Jackie's window. I saw someone jumping into the jeep and speeding away. Jackie had just been shot and killed in cold blood. We think this was a carjacking gone wrong. Very wrong. Every time I open the garage door or stand in the driveway, I hear that horn. I see her slumped in the seat. 221243 Where -- when I go to bed at night, that sound and image haunt me. That is my life sentence. It's a sentence being served by too many families left behind by senseless killings. Albuquerque, where I live, is one of the most violent cities in the country. 221303 Fewer than 50% of homicides are solved. It is a sad irony that Jackie immigrated to the U.S. for a better life than her native Columbia only to be gunned down in her own driveway. For eight months, there were no arrests no leads in connection with Jackie's murder. The Albuquerque police were overwhelmed. They needed help. Help arrived when president trump launched operation legend in July of this year. Almost immediately the FBI took over Jackie's case. In a matter of days, they arrested four people. 221341 The fifth suspect killer was arrested in Texas on unrelated charges. He is an illegal immigrant with a long criminal record. He had been deported in September and had come back in October to terrorize our community. I am extremely grateful to President Trump and the FBI for their efforts to deliver justice for Jackie and all the other innocent victims of violent crime. I'm honored to support the president because he is supporting us. I know he will never stop fighting for justice, for law and order. for peace, security, and our communities. CLARENCE HENDERSON 211424 CLARENCE HENDERSON>> Greetings, my fellow Americans. I am Clarence Henderson. There's been movements that have changed the course of history. Among the most extraordinary was the civil rights movement. 60 years ago, segregation was legal and enforced. The simple act of sitting at a lunch counter could lead to physical harm, jail time or worse. 221449 I know from personal experience. Walking into Woolworth's Department Store on Fairway and Second, 1960, I knew it was unlike any day I'd experienced before. My friends had been denied service the day before because of the color of their skin. We knew it wasn't right. But when we went back the next day, I didn't know whether I was going to come out in a vertical or prone position, in handcuffs or on a stretcher or even in a body bag. 221524 By sitting down to order a cup of coffee, we challenged injustice. We knew it was necessary, but we didn't know what would happen. We faced down the KKK. We were cursed at and called all kinds of names. They threatened to kill us and some of us were arrested, but it was worth it. 221548 Our actions inspired similar protests throughout the south against racial injustice. And in the end, segregation was abolished and our country moved a step closer to true equality for all. That's what actual peaceful protest can accomplish. America isn't perfect. We're always improving. But the great thing about this country is that it's not where you come from. It's where you're going. 221616 I was born on what some would call the wrong side of the tracks. I don't even have a birth certificate. I never attended an integrated school. And I'm the only one out of my immediate family who graduated from college, an hbcu. I'm a military veteran and a civil rights activist. And you know what else? I'm a Republican. And I support Donald Trump. If that sounds strange, you don't know your history. It was a Republican party that passed the 13th amendment, abolishing slavery. 221654 It was the Republican Party that passed the 14th Amendment, giving Black men citizenship. It was the Republican party that passed the 15th amendment, giving Black men the right to vote. Freedom of thought is a powerful thing. There are Americans, voters all over the country who media is trying to convince to conform to the same old Democratic talking points. You know what that will get you? The same old results. Joe Biden had the audacity to say if you don't vote for him, you ain't Black. Well, to that I say: if you do vote for Biden, you don't know history. 221733 Donald Trump is not a politician. He's a leader. Politicians are a dime a dozen. Leaders are priceless. The record funding Trump gave HBCUs is priceless, too. So are the record number of jobs he created for the black community and the investment he drove into our neighborhoods with tax incentives and opportunity Zones. And so are the lives he restored by passing criminal justice reform where 91% of the inmates released are black. 221807 These achievements demonstrate that Donald Trump truly cares about black lives. His policies show his heart. He's done more for black Americans in four years than Joe Biden has done in 50. Donald Trump is offering real and lasting change, an unprecedented opportunity to rise. A country that embraces the spirit of the civil rights movement of the 60s. 221835 A place where people are judged by the content of their character, their talents and abilities, not by the color of their skin. This is the America I was fighting for 60 years ago. this is the America Donald Trump is fighting for today. Let's all join in this fight for re-electing president trump on November 3. Thank you. RICHARD GRENELL 221904 GRENELL>> During the presidential debates four years ago, one outsider stood alone and said in public what most Americans thought in private. It was 14 years after the start of the war in Afghanistan and 12 years after the invasion of Iraq, where thousands of American troops had died and trillions in taxpayer dollars had been spent. And yet no candidate could bring themselves to admit that something had gone badly wrong with American foreign policy. 221935 But the American voter, the American soldier and the American taxpayer had always been let down. Except for one, Donald Trump. He called America's endless wars what they were -- a disaster. The media was shocked because Donald Trump was running as a Republican. And yet, he said out loud what we all knew, that American foreign policy was failing to make Americans safer. 222009 After the end of the cold war, Democrats and Republicans in Washington bought into the illusion that the whole world would start to resemble America, and so they started to pursue unlimited globalization. They welcomed China into the World Trade Organization. They engaged in nation building in Afghanistan, and tried to export democracy to Iraq. 222034 They signed a nuclear deal with Iran and a global climate agreement in Paris. But they didn't ground any of it in the interests of the average American. So for decades while Washington politicians built a global system, American wages stagnated. Our great cities and industries were hollowed out. Entire communities were devastated. 222059 And our manufacturing plants were shipped off to China. That's what happened when Washington stopped being the capitol of the United States and started being the capitol of the world. As the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, I had a front row seat to Donald Trump's America first foreign policy. I wish American could see how president trump negotiates on their behalf. 222126 I've watched President Trump charm the chancellor of Germany while insisting that Germany pay its NATO obligations. I was proud to witness President Trump say to foreign leaders, I don't blame you for wanting America to pay for your security. I actually respect you for out- negotiating the presidents before me. But it stops with me. I won't let the American taxpayer be taken advantage of. Donald Trump's administration has always made clear that our priority is the American people's security. 222203 That's the job of all leaders, to put their people first. And we've seen how this strategy has succeeded. In four short years, Donald Trump has led even some Washington Democrats to agree on the Chinese threat, on trade deals that benefit America first, on alliances that share responsibility. In four years, Donald Trump didn't start any new wars. He brought troops home. 222231 He rebuilt the military and signed peace deals that make Americans safer. The Washington elites want you to think this kind of foreign policy is immoral. And so they call it nationalist. That tells you all you need to know. The DC crowd thinks when they call Donald trump a nationalist, they're insulting him. As if the American president isn't supposed to base foreign policy on America's national interests. 222301 A return to the Biden way of thinking means America gives the radical terrorist regime in Tehran a planeload of cash in the middle of the night. Well you see, president trump also sent an aircraft in the middle of the night to deal with Iran. But that plane was on a different mission. An air strike to take out the head of Iran's terror machine who plotted the deaths of Americans. 222327 But we also must be clear that when those who seek freedom take tremendous personal risk in places like Hong Kong, Tehran or Minsk there's no doubt who president trump's administration supports. We will always stand with the people the who fight for their god-given freedoms. Don't be fooled. The Washington establishment is trying to sell you on their candidate. 222358 Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972, 48 years ago. Well, it's actually the typical Washington story. Just this year, 22 Democrats ran for President. They rejected all of the outsiders and nominated the ultimate Washington insider, someone that they had to pull out of retirement. 222424 Every time Joe Biden offers a new idea, you should ask yourself: why didn't he try that over the last 48 years? Today, the Democrats blame a global pandemic that started in China on President Trump, and they still blame Russia for Hillary Clinton's loss in 19-- in 2016. As acting director of national intelligence, I saw the Democrats' entire case for Russian collusion. 222451 And what I saw made me sick to my stomach. The Obama-Biden administration secretly launched a surveillance operation on the Trump campaign and silenced the many brave intelligence officials who spoke up against it. They presented bogus information as facts. They lied to judges, then they classified anything that undermined their case. And after Donald Trump won the election, when they should have continued the American tradition of helping the President-Elect transition into the White House, they tried instead to undercut him even more. 222533 Former vice president Joe Biden asked intelligence officials to uncover the hidden information on President Trump's incoming national security adviser three weeks before the inauguration. That's the Democrats. Between surveillance, classifications, leaks and puppet candidates, they never want the American people to know who is actually calling the shots. 222557 But with Donald Trump, you always know exactly who is in charge. Because the answer is you. You're in charge. Not lobbyists, not special interests. Not warmongers or China sympathizers or globalization fanatics. With Donald Trump and Mike Pence in the white house, the boss is the American people. President Trump rightly calls his foreign policy "America first." 222630 America first does not advance the interests of one group of Americans at the expense of another. It has no bias about red or blue, educated or not educated, urban or rural. America first is simply the belief that politicians should focus on the equality and dignity of every American. And that this duty is fulfilled by promoting the safety and wealth of the American people above all else. That's America first. That's the trump doctrine and that, my friends, is four more years. [RNC VIDEO] 222724 VO>> By dawn's early light, millions of Americans give thanks for this land, our liberties and those who defend it. That same pride inspired the words of our National Anthem, penned here as the smoke of battle lifted over two centuries ago. When those American soldiers bravely fought and died, repelling the British onslaught, they did so not only for our people which that flag represented, but for our principles for which the flag stood. 222754 Our god-given freedoms, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, equality under the law, government by the people. These are the threads that bind us together as Americans. For we're not a nation born of blood, but of belief. 222813 And even though that old flag has sometimes been battered and beaten, faded and forgotten, fired upon and set ablaze, there are heroes throughout our history who have picked up those tattered strands, mended them, and raised our flag anew. 222830 Just as the soldiers at Fort McHenry fought in defense of the beliefs that bind us today, there are new leaders who have devoted their life to do the same. 222846 MIKE PENCE (ON VIDEO)>> Greetings across the amber waves of grain, this is Mike pence. VO>> Across Indiana highways and homes, his voice warmly welcomed hoosiers each morning. Mike Pence filled the radio waves with conservative commentary, guarding our American ideals. But much like the man who inspired him, Mike didn't grow up a Republican. 222907 MIKE PENCE (VO)>> As president Reagan said, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. >> His grandfather was a hard-working Irish immigrant who drove a bus to provide for his family. His father served our nation bravely in the Korean war and earned a bronze star. Mike was the third of six children raised here in Columbus, Indiana, with a cornfield in his backyard. 222930 MIKE PENCE (ON VIDEO)>> The foundation of America is freedom, and the foundation of freedom is faith. VO>> It was in this small Indiana town, his foundation of faith in Jesus Christ was laid. And from that conviction, sprung his love of people and service to others. It was at a church service where Mike met the love of his life, Karen. They married and have three children, Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey. MIKE PENCE (ON VIDEO)>> I'm a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order. 223000 VO>> Mike became the President of Free-Market Think Tank, the host of a statewide conservative radio show, and then a Congressman. In Washington, Mike quickly became known as a foremost defender of freedom. He led conservatives in the fight to protect our time-honored values of family, faith, life, liberty, and limited government. 223023 MIKE PENCE (ON VIDEO)>> Our nation's strength begins at homes, because strong families make a strong America. VO>> Mike earned the trust of the people of his state, and became the 50th governor of Indiana. He delivered the largest state tax cut in Indiana history, expanded school choice, led the country in manufacturing, and helped more hoosiers get to work than ever before, but he wasn't through. 223045 DAVID MUIR (ON VIDEO)>> ABC news has learned that Donald Trump will choose Indiana governor Mike pence to be his running mate. TRUMP (ON VIDEO)>> I would like to introduce a man who I truly believe will be the next vice president of the United States. Governor Mike pence. 223102 VO>> As our vice president, Mike Pence has held tightly to those threads of freedom, woven through our history. Leading with those principles alongside president trump, our nation experienced prosperity like never before. TRUMP (ON VIDEO)>> He is solid as a rock. He's been a fantastic vice president. 223120 VO>> And now in these uncertain days, we are equipped to overcome. In times of trouble, some call to retreat from those ideals. But Americans throughout history have lifted them in triumph, hope, and resilience. Mike pence knows those stars and stripes do not merely represent who we are, but more importantly, what we can be. 223147 As the sun rises again on America, we lift our eyes to those lofty truths, to guide our country and every one of us to greater heights. In this land of the free and home of the brave. Vice president Mike pence. 223227 [MIKE AND KAREN PENCE ENTER] 223227 >> Please welcome the vice president of the United States, Mike Pence. Accompanied by the second lady, Mrs. Karen Pence. MIKE PENCE 223327 [CROWD CHANTS "FOUR MORE YEARS] 223336 MIKE PENE>> Good evening, America. It's an honor to speak to you tonight from the hallowed grounds of Fort McHenry. The site of the very battle that inspired the words of our national anthem. Those words have inspired this land of heroes in every generation since. It was on this site 206 years ago when our young republic heroically withstood a ferocious naval bombardment from the most powerful empire on Earth. 223409 They came to crush our revolution, to divide our nation, and to end the American experiment. The heroes who held this fort took their stand for life, liberty, freedom and the American flag, and those ideals have defined our nation. 223434 But they were hardly ever mentioned at last week's Democratic national convention. Instead Democrats spent four days attacking America. Joe Biden said that we were living through a season of darkness. But as president trump said, where Joe Biden sees American darkness, we see American greatness. 223512 In these challenging times, our country needs a president who believes in America, who believes in the boundless capacity of the American people, to meet any challenge, defeat any foe, and defend the freedoms we hold dear. America needs four more years of president Donald Trump in the white house. 223540 Before I go forward, allow me to say a word to the families and communities in the path of Hurricane Laura. Our prayers are with you tonight, and our administration is working closely with authorities in the states that will be impacted. FEMA has mobilized resources and supplies for those in harm's way. This is a serious storm and we urge all of those in the affected areas to heed state and local authorities, stay safe and know that we'll be with you every step of the way, to support, rescue, respond, and recover in the days and weeks ahead. 223618 That's what Americans do. [ Applause ] Four years ago I answered the call to join this ticket because I knew that Donald Trump had the leadership and the vision to make America great again. And for the last four years I've watched this president endure unrelenting attacks but get up every day and fight to keep the promises that he made to the American people. 223652 So, with gratitude for the confidence president Donald Trump has placed in me, the support of our Republican party and the grace of god, I humbly accept your nomination to run and serve as Vice President of the United States. [applause/cheers] 223737 [crowd chants "FOUR MORE YEARS] 223740 Serving the American people in this office has been a journey I never expected. It's a journey that would not have been possible without the support of my family, beginning with my wonderful wife Karen. [ Applause ] 223801 She's a life-long school teacher, an incredible mother to our 3 children. And she's one outstanding second lady of the United States. I'm so proud of you. [ Applause ] And we couldn't be more proud of our three children: Marine Corps captain, Michael J. Pence, and his wife Sara. 223827 Our daughter Charlotte pence Bond, an author and wife to lieutenant Henry Bond who is currently deployed and serving our nation in the United States Navy. [ Applause ] 223845 And our youngest, a recent law school grad, our daughter Audrey and her fiance who like so many other Americans had to delay their wedding this summer. But we can't wait for Dan to be a part of our family. [ Applause ] In addition, my wife and kids, the person who's shaped my life the most is also with us tonight. 223916 My mom, Nancy. [ Applause ] She is the daughter of an irish immigrant, 87 years young. Mom follows politics very closely. And the truth be told, sometimes I think I'm actually her second favorite candidate on the trump/pence ticket. 223947 Thank you, Mom. I love you. Over the past 4 years, I've had the privilege to work closely with our President. I've seen him when the cameras are off. Americans see President Trump is lots if different ways. But there's not doubt how President Trump sees America. 224012 He sees America for what it is: a nation that has done more good in this world than any other, a nation that deserves far more gratitude than grievance. And if you want a president who falls silent when our heritage is demeaned or insulted, he's not your man. [ Applause ] 224041 Now we came by very different routes to this partnership, and some people think we're a little bit different. But you know, I've learned a few things watching him. Watching him deal with all that we've been through over the past four years. He does things in his own way, on his own terms. 224103 Not much gets past him, and when he has an opinion, he's liable to share it. [laughter] He's certainly kept things interesting. But more importantly, president Donald Trump has kept his word to the American people. [ Applause ] 224130 In a city known for talkers, President Trump is a doer. And few presidents have brought more Independence, energy or determination to that office. Four years ago, we inherited a military hollowed out by devastating budget cuts, an economy struggling to break out of the slowest recovery since the great depression. ISIS controlled a land mass twice the size of Pennsylvania, and we witnessed a steady assault on our most cherished values -- freedom of religion and the right to life. That's when president Donald Trump stepped in. 224211 And from day one, he kept his word. We rebuilt our military. [ Applause ] This president signed the largest increase in our national defense since the days of Ronald Reagan and created the first new branch of our armed forces in 70 years, the United States space force. [ Cheers and applause ] 224241 And with that renewed energy, we also returned American astronauts to space on an American rocket for the first time in nearly 10 years. And after years of scandal that robbed our veterans of the care that you earned in the uniform of the United States, president trump kept his word again. We reformed the va and veterans choice is now available for every veteran in America. [ Applause ] 224319 Our armed forces and our veterans fill this land of heroes, and many join us tonight in this historic fort. Tonight, we have among us four recipients of the medal of honor, [ Applause ] six recipients of the purple heart, [ Applause ] a gold star mother of a gallant Navy S.E.A.L. [ Applause ] and wounded warriors from Soldiers Strong, a group that serves our injured veterans every day. 224401 We are honored by your presence and we thank you for your service. [ Applause ] 224429 With heroes just like these, we defend this nation every day. And under this commander in chief, we've taken the fight to radical islamic terrorists on our terms on their soil. Last year, American armed forces took the last inch of ISIS territory, crushed their caliphate and took down their leader without one American causality. [ Applause ] 224457 And I was there when president trump gave the order to take out the world's most dangerous terrorist, Iran's top general will never harm another American because qassem soleimani is gone. [ Cheers and applause ] 224518 My fellow Americans, you deserve to know, Joe Biden criticized President Trump following those decisions, decisions to rid the world of two terrorist leaders. But it's not surprising, because history records that Joe Biden even opposed the operation that took down Osama bin Laden. It's no wonder that the secretary of the defense under the Obama/Biden administration once said that Joe Biden has been, and I quote, "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." 224602 So we've stood up to our enemies and we've stood with our allies, like when President Trump kept his word and moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem, [cheers/applause] the capital of the state of Israel, setting the stage for the first Arab country to recognize Israel in 26 years. [ Applause ] 224628 Closer to home, we appointed more than 200 conservative judges to our federal courts. We supported the right to life and all the god given liberties enshrined in our constitution, including the second amendment, right to keep and bear arms. [applause] And when it came to the economy, President Trump kept his word and then some. We passed the largest tax cut and reform in American history. 224655 We rolled back more federal red tape than any administration ever had. We unleashed American energy and fought for free and fair trade. And in our first three years, businesses large and small created more than 7 million good-paying jobs, including 500,000 manufacturing jobs all across America. [ Applause ] 224722 Our country became a net exporter of energy for the first time in 70 years. Unemployment rates for African-Americans and hispanic Americans hit the lowest level ever recorded. 224733 And on this 100th anniversary of the women's right to vote, I'm proud to report that under President Donald Trump, we achieved the lowest unemployment rate for women in 65 years. [ Applause ] And more Americans working than ever before. In our first three years, we built the greatest economy in the world. We made America great again. [ Applause ] 224807 And then, the coronavirus struck from China. Before the first case of the coronavirus spread within the United States, the President took unprecedented action and suspended all travel from China, the second largest economy in the world. Now, that action saved untold American lives, and I can tell you firsthand, it bought us invaluable time to launch the greatest national mobilization since World War II. 224841 President Trump marshalled the full resources of our federal government from the outset. He directed us to forge a seamless partnership with governors across America, in both political parties. We partnered with private industry to reinvent testing and produce supplies that we -- that were distributed to hospitals around the land. 224905 Today we're conducting more than 800,000 tests a day and we have coordinated the delivery of billions of pieces of personal protective equipment for our amazing doctors, nurses and health care workers. [ Applause ] We saw to the manufacture of 100,000 ventilators in 100 days and no one who required a ventilator was ever denied a ventilator in the United States. [ Applause ] 224945 We built hospitals, surged military medical personnel, and enacted an economic rescue package that saved 50 million American jobs. And as we speak, we're developing a growing number of treatments known as therapeutics, including convalescent plasma that are saving lives all across America. Now, last week, Joe Biden said that no miracle is coming. 225015 Well, what Joe doesn't seem to understand is that America is a nation of miracles. [ Applause ] And I'm proud to report that we're on track to have the world's first safe, effective coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year. [ Applause ] 225042 After all the sacrifice in this year like no other, all the hardship, we're finding our way forward again. But tonight, our hearts are with all of the families who have lost loved ones and have family members still struggling with serious illness. In this country, we mourn with those who mourn, we grieve with those who grieve. And this night, I know that millions of Americans will pause and pray for god's comfort for each of you. 225123 You know, our country doesn't get through such a time unless its people find strength within. The response of doctors, nurses, first responders, farmers, factory workers, truckers and everyday Americans who put the health and safety of their neighbors first has been nothing short of heroic. [ Applause ] 225154 Veronica Saez put on her scrubs every day, day in and day out went to work in one of New York City's busiest hospitals. She stayed on the job, put in the long hours until it was done and then got back in her neighborhood and helped neighbors and friends struggling. Her brother William is a New York City firefighter and they're both emblematic of heroes all across this country. 225231 They're with us tonight, and I say to them and to all of you: you have earned the admiration of the American people, and we will always be grateful for your service and care. [applause] 225309 Thanks to the courage and compassion of the American people, we're slowing the spread. We're protecting the vulnerable, and we're saving lives. And we're opening up America again. Because of the strong foundation that President Trump poured in our first 3 years, we've already gained back 9.3 million jobs in the last three months alone. [cheers and applause] 225339 And we're not just opening up America again, we're opening up America's schools. [ Applause ] 225351 And I'm proud to report that my wife, Karen, that school teacher I've been married to will be returning to her classroom next week. And so to all of our heroic teachers and faculty and staff, thank you for being there for our kids. We're going to stay with you every step of the way. [ Applause ] 225417 In the days ahead as we open up America again, I promise you, we'll continue to put the health of America first. 225425 And as we work to bring this economy back, we all have a role to play, and we all have a choice to make. On November 3rd, you need to ask yourself, who do you trust to rebuild this economy? A career politician who presided over the slowest economic recovery since the great depression, or a proven leader who created the greatest economy in the world? 225456 The choice is clear. To bring America all the way back, we need four more years of president Donald Trump in the white house. [ Cheers and applause ] 225523 My fellow Americans, we're passing through a time of testing. When, in the midst of this global pandemic, just as our nation had begun to recover, we've seen violence and chaos in the streets of our major cities. 225538 President Trump and I will always support the right of Americans to peaceful protest. But rioting and looting is not peaceful protest. Tearing down statues is not free speech, and those who do so will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. [ Applause ] 225605 Last week Joe Biden didn't say one word about the violence and chaos engulfing cities across this country. So let me be clear, the violence must stop. Whether in Minneapolis, Portland or Kenosha. Too many heroes have died defending our freedom to see Americans strike each other down. 225629 We will have law and order on the streets of this country for every American of every race and creed and color. [ Cheers and applause ] President Trump and I know that the men and women that put on the uniform of law enforcement are the best of us. Every day, when they walk out that door, they consider our lives more important than their own. 225715 People like Dave Patrick Underwood, an officer in the Department of Homeland Security's federal protective service who was shot and killed during the riots in Oakland, California. Dave's heroism is emblematic of the heroes that serve in blue every day. And we're privileged tonight to be joined by his sister, Angela. 225745 Angela, we say to you, we -- we grieve with your family, and America will never forget or fail to honor officer Dave Patrick Underwood. [ Applause ] 225809 The American people know we don't have to choose between supporting law enforcement and standing with our African-American neighbors to improve the quality of their lives, education, jobs, and safety. 225827 And from the first days of this administration, we've done both. And we will keep supporting law enforcement and keep supporting our African-American and minority communities across this land for four more years. (standing ovation) Now, Joe Biden says that America is systematically racist. 225904 And that law enforcement in America has, and I quote, "an implicit bias" against minorities. When asked whether he'd support cutting funding to law enforcement, Joe Biden replied, "Yes, absolutely." Joe Biden would double down on the very policies that are leading to violence in America's cities. 225934 The hard truth is, you won't be safe in Joe Biden's America. And under President Trump, we will always stand with those who stand on the thin blue line, and we're not going to defund the police, not now, not ever. [ Cheers and applause ] 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 08262020 230000 2020 230010 My fellow Americans, we're passing through a time of testing. But soon, we will come to a time for choosing. Joe Biden has referred to himself as a transition candidate. And many were asking, transition to what? 230024 Last week Democrats didn't talk very much about their agenda. And if I were them, I wouldn't either. [ Laughter ] I mean Bernie Sanders did tell his followers that Joe Biden would be the most liberal president in modern times. In fact, he said, and I quote, that many of the ideas he fought for, that just a few years ago were considered radical, are now mainstream in the democratic party. 230059 At the root of their agenda, is the belief that America is driven by envy, not aspiration. That millions of Americans harbor ill will toward our neighbors, instead of loving our neighbors as ourselves. The radical left believes that the federal government must be involved in every aspect of our lives to correct those American wrongs. They believe the federal government needs to dictate how Americans live, how we should work, how we should raise our children. 230133 And in the process, deprive our people of freedom, prosperity and security. Their agenda is based on government control. Our agenda is based on freedom. [Applause] 230152 Where President Trump cut taxes, Joe Biden wants to raise taxes by nearly 4 trillion dollars. Where this President achieved energy independence for the United States, Joe Biden would abolish fossil fuels, end fracking, and impose a regime of climate change regulations that would drastically increase the cost of living for working families. Where we fought for free and fair trade and this president stood up to China and ended the era of economic surrender, Joe Biden has been a cheerleader for communist China. 230228 He wants to repeal all of the tariffs that are leveling the playing field for American workers and he actually criticized president trump for suspending all travel to China at the outset of this pandemic. Joe Biden is for open borders, sanctuary cities, free lawyers and health care for illegal immigrants. President trump, he secured our border and built nearly 300 miles of that border wall. [ Applause ] Joe Biden wants to end school choice. 230308 And President Trump believes that every parent should have the right to choose where their children go to school, regardless of their income or area code. [ Applause ] President Trump -- President Trump has stood without apology for the sanctity of human life, every day of this administration. Joe Biden, he supports taxpayer funding of abortion, right up to the moment of birth. 230342 When you consider their agenda, it's clear. Joe Biden would be nothing more than a Trojan horse for the radical left. The choice in this election has never been clearer, and the stakes have never been higher. Last week, Joe Biden said democracy is on the ballot. And the truth is, our economic recovery is on the ballot. 230408 Law and order are on the ballot. But so are things far more fundamental and foundational to our country. In this election it's not so much whether America will be more conservative or more liberal, more Republican or more Democrat. The choice in this election is whether America remains America. 230435 It's whether we will leave to our children and grandchildren a country grounded in our highest ideals of freedom, free markets, and the unalienable right to life and liberty, or whether we will leave them a country that is fundamentally transformed into something else. We stand at a crossroads, America. 230458 President Trump has set our nation on a path of freedom and opportunity. Joe Biden would set America on a path of socialism and decline, but we're not going to let it happen. [ Applause ] 230520 President Donald Trump believes in America and in the goodness of the American people, the boundless potential of every American to live out their dreams in freedom and, every day, President Trump has been fighting to protect the promise of America. 230537 Every day our president has been fighting to expand the reach of the American dream. Every day president Donald Trump has been fighting for you. And now it's our turn to fight for him. (applause) 230603 On this night in the company of heroes, I'm deeply grateful. Deeply grateful for the privilege of serving as vice president of this great nation, and to have the opportunity to serve again. I pray to be worthy of it, and I will give that duty all that's in me. In the year 2020, the American people have had more than our share of challenges. But, thankfully, we have a president with the toughness, energy, and resolve to see us through. 220641 Now, those traits actually run in our national character. As the invading force learned on approach to this fort, in September of 1814, against fierce and sustained bombardment, our young country was defended by heroes, not so different from those who are with us tonight. The enemy was counting on them to quit, but they never did. 230718 Fort McHenry, held and when morning came, our flag was still here. [ Applause ] My fellow Americans, we're going through a time of testing. But if you look through the fog of these challenging times, you will see. Our flag is still there today. 230756 That star-spangled banner still waves over the land of the free and the home of the brave. From these hallowed grounds, American patriots in generations gone by did their part to defend freedom. Now it's our turn. So let's run the race marked out for us. 230829 Let's fix our eyes on old glory and all she represents. Let's fix our eyes on this land of heros. And let their courage inspire. And let's fix our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith and our freedom. And never forget that where the spirit of the lord is, there's freedom. That means freedom always wins. [ Cheers and applause ] 230910 My fellow Americans, thank you for the honor of addressing you tonight and the opportunity to run and serve again as your vice president. I leave here today inspired. And I leave here today more convinced than ever that we will do in our time, as Americans have done throughout our long and storied past. We will defend our freedom and our way of life. We will reelect our president and principled Republican leaders across the land. 230948 And with president Donald Trump in the White House for four more years, and with god's help, we will make America great again. Again. [ Applause ] Thank you. God bless you. And god bless the United States of America. [ Cheers and applause ] 231035 [DONALD AND MELANIA TRUMP ENTER] 231132 ["FOUR MORE YEARS" CHANTS] 231212 [TRACE ADKINS SINGING "STAR SPANGLED BANNER"] 231449 [DONALD AND MELANIA TRUMP GO TO CROWD] #### RNC Night 3 (#1): Re-upping schedule and preview Good evening from Charlotte, Jacksonville, Jerusalem, my living room (again!) for night 3 of the Republican National Convention. We are less than an hour away from the start of the primetime program, on a night featuring several notable speakers, including Vice President Pence and Karen Pence; Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Joni Ernst; Reps. Dan Crenshaw, Elise Stefanik and Lee Zeldin; Kellyanne Conway and Kayleigh McEnany. Tonight's theme: "America Land of Heroes." Below this email you'll find tonight's full schedule, plus background, courtesy of Alisa and Terrance (though please note that much of it is off-the-record prior to air). Notes from tonight's proceedings will all come chained as replies to this email. Despite many speeches being pre-taped, we'll be on particular lookout for reactions to the Kenosha shooting and ongoing protests, and to Hurricane Laura, and will be sure to flag any related comments. RNC Night 3 (#2): Legislators highlight law enforcement within 'heroes' theme 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 Full RNC Night 3 Log <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1v2jpAz7GdH8tX-tl-PbaeBlyGdNBhVAMAoX5Adhvzlk%2Fedit&data=02%7C01%7CMatthew.X.Johnson.-ND%40abc.com%7Cbb369fea80ee4499b55908d84a25e978%7C56b731a8a2ac4c32bf6b616810e913c6%7C1%7C0%7C637340874074699417&sdata=nqIX44I9Rb5fKP8Ad9ehf71kZX4nYJhSPgdNGjqRCMA%3D&reserved=0> After another Jon Voight-narrated video to begin the evening, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem -- who has worked her way into President Trump's good graces recently, particularly following Trump's July 4 trip to Mt. Rushmore -- gave the first noteworthy remarks, arguing that "our founding principles are under attack," and took an ominous and potentially pandemic-related shot at "so-called experts" while discussing civil liberties. "America is unique in the world. Government's power at all levels is limited to the confines of our Constitution, which protects our God-given liberties and civil rights. We are not - and will not - be the subjects of an elite class of so-called experts. We the people are the government." (20:37:30) Noem also compared President Trump to Abraham Lincoln -- a comparison Trump likes to make himself when it comes to advancing the lives of Black Americans. "When he was just 28 years old, Honest Abe saw wild and furious passions, "worse than savage mobs," he said, taking the place of reasoned judgment. He was alarmed by the increasing disregard for the rule of law throughout the country." (20:37:59) "He was concerned for the people who had seen their property destroyed, their families attacked, and their lives threatened or even taken away. These good people were becoming tired of, and disgusted with, a government that offered them no protection. Sound familiar?" (20:38:37) Later, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee focused much of her remarks on "the heroes of our law enforcement and armed services" including some lines critics are likely to seize upon amid the uproar over the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Blackburn did not specifically mention the shooting. "Leftists turned them into villains. They want to cancel them. But I'm here to tell you, these heroes can't be cancelled." (20:44:53) "I see law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every single day to keep our community safe, in spite of the hatred thrown at them." (20:45:30) "They say, we can't gather in community groups, but encourage protests, riots, and looting in the streets." (20:47:14) Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw picked up on that theme in some ways, comparing the heroism he witnessed as a Navy SEAL to the everyday heroism across the country. Like Blackburn, Crenshaw took clear shots at Democrats and this summer's racial justice protests. "It's the cop that gets spit on one day and will save a child's life the next." (20:50:30) "Heroism is self-sacrifice, not moralizing and lecturing over others when they disagree. Heroism is grace, not perpetual outrage. Heroism is rebuilding our communities, not destroying them. Heroism is renewing faith in the symbols that unite us, not tearing them down." (20:50:50) RNC Night 3 (#3): Women's issues spotlighted; McEnany gets personal 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 Full RNC Night 3 Log <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1v2jpAz7GdH8tX-tl-PbaeBlyGdNBhVAMAoX5Adhvzlk%2Fedit&data=02%7C01%7CMatthew.X.Johnson.-ND%40abc.com%7Cb445ea48026d4e3315de08d84a295790%7C56b731a8a2ac4c32bf6b616810e913c6%7C1%7C0%7C637340888949873480&sdata=yhcX97SjhJ8t6aFLp9ZmPV%2BMQMFo5e%2Bmtp5rx%2FL%2Fv7E%3D&reserved=0> After a video on the women's suffrage movement, a trio of prominent women spoke to the convention. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany delivered deeply personal remarks about her choice to undergo a preventative mastectomy in 2018 and President Trump's support both shortly after the procedure and later while working White House, while balancing motherhood. "During one of my most difficult times, I expected to have the support of my family, but I had more support than I knew. As I came out of anesthesia, one of the first calls I received was from Ivanka Trump. Days later, as I recovered, my phone rang. It was President Trump, calling to check on me. I was blown away. Here was the leader of the free world caring about me." (21:06:05) She also echoed some of Trump's language about community safety and squeezed in what appeared to be a reference to the DNC pledge of allegiance controversy. "When I look into my baby's eyes, I see a new life, a miracle for which I have a solemn responsibility to protect.That means protecting America's future- a future President Trump will fight for where our neighborhoods are protected, where life is sacred, where God is cherished-- not taken out of our schools, removed from our Pledge, and erased from our history. I want my daughter to grow up in President Donald Trump's America." (21:07:47) Next, Second Lady Karen Pence highlighted the work of the armed services, referencing the service of her son and son-in-law, members of the Marines and Navy, respectively, and the difficulty many veterans encounter with PTSD. Referencing the 19th Amendment's centennial, she also put out a blanket call for Americans to vote -- something the administration's critics would argue that her husband and President Trump are making it more difficult to do. "100 years ago women secured the right to vote, so let's vote, America. Let's honor our heroes." (21:14:30) Afterward, Kellyanne Conway, promoted Trump's efforts to elevate women within the administration and argued that "empowerment" comes neither from social media slogans or "corporate handbooks." "This has been a century worth celebrating, but also a reminder that our democracy is young and fragile. A woman in a leadership role still can seem novel. Not so for President Trump. For decades, he has elevated women to senior positions in business and in government. He confides in and consults us, respects our opinions, and insists that we are on equal footing with the men. President Trump helped me shatter a barrier in the world of politics by empowering me to manage his campaign to its successful conclusion." (21:15:47) "For many of us, "women's empowerment" is not a slogan. It comes not from strangers on social media or sanitized language in a corporate handbook. It comes from the everyday heroes who nurture us, who shape us, and who believe in us." (21:16:17) RNC Night 3 (#4): Speakers attack Biden on abortion, faith; Cawthorn challenges conservatives 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 Full RNC Night 3 Log <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1v2jpAz7GdH8tX-tl-PbaeBlyGdNBhVAMAoX5Adhvzlk%2Fedit&data=02%7C01%7CMatthew.X.Johnson.-ND%40abc.com%7C9e032392ab3c40f3ea6708d84a2f3ff7%7C56b731a8a2ac4c32bf6b616810e913c6%7C1%7C0%7C637340914175930792&sdata=I9rwYPAb%2FYIoGR4Iei6PhXjpPNcBEXxOS2x0e%2BF9ImE%3D&reserved=0> Abortion was the common thread between the remarks of Sister Dede Byrne of the community of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and former college football coach Lou Holtz. Byrne shared details of her career as an Army doctor before entering the religious order in 2002, and used the experience to make her position on reproductive rights abundantly clear. "As followers of Christ, we are called to stand up for life and against the politically correct or fashionable today. We must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb. In fact, the laws we create define how we see our humanity. And we must ask ourselves, what are we saying when we go into a womb and snuff out an insignificant, powerless, voiceless life." (21:22:44) She went on to make an inflammatory claim about the positions of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the issue. "Donald Trump is the most pro-life President that this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages. His belief in the sanctity of life transcends politics. President Trump will stand up against Biden/Harris who are the most anti-life presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late-term abortion and infanticide." (21:23:45) Holtz later pointed to the subject to explain his support of Trump, while launching another attack on Biden's faith. "One of the important reasons he has my trust is because nobody has been a stronger advocate for the unborn than President Trump. The Biden-Harris ticket is the most radically pro-abortion campaign in history. They and other politicians are "Catholics in Name Only" and abandon innocent lives. President Trump protects those lives." (21:27:23) Later, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik gave a relatively traditional convention speech, describing her upstate New York district and telling her American dream story: the first in her family to go to college, small business success and election as the youngest Republican woman in House history. She also touted her work as a member of President Trump's impeachment defense (only the second mention of the word "impeachment" in three days), using it to bash the media and Democrats, who she later also characterized in now-boilerplate fashion as socialists. "President Trump has fought tirelessly to deliver results for all Americans, despite the Democrats' baseless and illegal impeachment sham and the media's endless obsession with it. I was proud to lead the effort standing up for the Constitution, President Trump, and most importantly the American people. This attack was not just on the President, it was an attack on you - your voice and your vote." (21:35:09) "But the American people were not swayed by these partisan attacks. Our support for President Trump is stronger than ever before." (21:35:23) From a former "Baby of the House" to the potential next holder of that title. 25-year-old North Carolina 11th Congressional District candidate Madison Cawthorn spoke of the car accident that left him partially paralyzed at 18, but of his decision, in its aftermath to "fight for our future" after his wheelchair initially made him feel "invisible." "This is a time of great adversity for our country. And I know something about adversity." (21:37:26) Cawthorn noted that several of the Founding Fathers had their first tastes of government and military leadership in their 20s (though he incorrectly claimed James Madison signed the Declaration of Independence - h/t Kelsey Walsh) "In times of peril, young people saved this country abroad and at home. We held the line, scaled cliffs, crossed oceans, liberated camps and cracked codes." (21:39:32) Interestingly, he also issued a charge to his fellow Republicans, challenging them to be clearer about their ideas and policies. "To conservatives, let's define what we support and win the argument in areas like health care and the environment." (21:40:31) There was also a nice moment at the end of his remarks during which Cawthorn stood while reciting part of the Pledge of Allegiance. (21:41:23) RNC Night 3 (#5): Remarks on China, coronavirus, agriculture as speakers jump topic-to-topic 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 Full RNC Night 3 Log <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1v2jpAz7GdH8tX-tl-PbaeBlyGdNBhVAMAoX5Adhvzlk%2Fedit&data=02%7C01%7CMatthew.X.Johnson.-ND%40abc.com%7C92c74d7709dd43420f5c08d84a31c317%7C56b731a8a2ac4c32bf6b616810e913c6%7C1%7C0%7C637340924953504603&sdata=kbPL5btX2PfhIypqyawNq7oWfP9p3rij4sL3FHlbKTU%3D&reserved=0> Chinese dissident Chen Guangchen described that country's Communist Party as an "enemy of humanity" and accused it of covering up the coronavirus pandemic, while criticizing the Obama-Biden administration for a policy of "appeasement." "The U.S. must use its values of freedom, democracy, and the role of law to gather a coalition of other democracies to stop CCP's aggression. President Trump has led on this, and we need the other countries to join him in this fight. A fight for our future. Standing up to fight and fairness isn't easy. I know. So does President Trump. But he has shown the courage to lead that fight." (21:48:56) New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, who had been listed earlier in the schedule, but spoke over midway through, devoted a larger proportion of his remarks to the pandemic than nearly any other speaker through the first three days. Zeldin spoke of the health challenges faced by his daughters before turning to the efforts undertaken by the administration to combat the coronavirus. "When I learned my county's PPE stockpile was depleted, I immediately thought of those healthcare workers who saved my baby girls. Jared Kushner and I were on the phone late into that Saturday night. The very next day, President Trump announced he was sending us 200,000 N-95 masks. He actually delivered almost 400,000. That number quickly grew to 1.2 million masks, gowns, and more. The President sent thousands of ventilators to New York. He deployed the USS Comfort and converted the Javits Center to a field hospital." (21:51:25) "His administration authorized our lab testing requests at blinding speed. During a once in a century pandemic, an unforeseeable crisis sent to us from a far away land, the president's effort for New York was phenomenal." (21:51:56) Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, in the midst of a competitive campaign of her own, spoke about the recent derecho that wiped out one-third of the state's crops, and thanked Trump for immediately approving disaster aid. She further honed-in on agriculture while criticizing Democrats, and making a few less-than-truthful claims about the Green New Deal "I can't recall an administration more hostile to farmers than Obama-Biden, unless you count the Biden-Harris ticket. The Democratic Party of Joe Biden is pushing this so-called Green New Deal. If given power, they would essentially ban animal agriculture and eliminate gas-powered cars. It would destroy the agriculture industry, not just here in Iowa, but throughout the country." (21:57:31) RNC Night 3 (#6): Lara Trump on meeting the family; Richard Grenell on foreign policy and 'charming' Merkel 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 Full RNC Night 3 Log <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1v2jpAz7GdH8tX-tl-PbaeBlyGdNBhVAMAoX5Adhvzlk%2Fedit&data=02%7C01%7CMatthew.X.Johnson.-ND%40abc.com%7C9f499e9f2dcc4065864108d84a36bfa5%7C56b731a8a2ac4c32bf6b616810e913c6%7C1%7C0%7C637340946365837028&sdata=V9WrWu5Icu9soTZ80sBjYwGIVi3EzRPplTR01rO0%2BSM%3D&reserved=0> (Pence highlights TK via Gomez; h/t to Farrell, Gingello, Johnson, Levine, & McNish for the logs) Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law, and a now-seasoned public speaker and advocate through her role as a campaign adviser, gave another only-in-this-country speech, in which she spoke of her small business-owner parents and her New York City dreams, while offering a peek behind the curtain of the Trump family and highlighting women's issues yet again. "Any preconceived notion I had of this family disappeared immediately. They were warm and caring, they were hard workers, and they were down to earth. They reminded me of my own family - they made me feel like I was home." (22:04:53) "Walking the halls of the Trump Organization, I saw the same family environment. I also saw, first-hand, the countless women executives who thrived there, year after year." (22:05:22) She went on to detail how she became involved in the 2016 campaign, claiming his trust in her was a reflection of his support of all women, and perhaps reveling her father-in-law's lax employment vetting standards. "Though I had no political experience, he believed in me and supported me - he knew I was capable even if I didn't." (22:05:50) "So, it didn't surprise me when President Donald Trump appointed the most women to senior level positions of any administration in history. The Secretary of the United Nations, Secretary of the Air Force, the first female CIA Director, the first African American female director of the Fish and Wildlife service and countless ambassadors, just to name a few." (22:05:58) "He didn't do these things to gain a vote or to check a box - he did them because they are the right things to do." (22:06:43) After later pledging that the president will "keep America America," Lara Trump made a personal appeal to undecided voters, referencing her seventh grade teacher who once told her to "believe none of what you hear, half of what you read and only what you're there to witness firsthand." "If you're watching tonight and wrestling with your vote on November 3rd, I implore you: tune out the distorted news and biased commentary and hear it straight from someone who knows. I wasn't born a Trump. I'm from the South. I was raised a Carolina girl. I went to public schools and worked my way through a state university. Mrs. B from my seventh grade English class was right - what I learned about our president is different than what you might have heard." (22:09:27) "I learned that he is a good man. That he loves his family. That he didn't need this job. That no one on Earth works harder for the American people. That he's willing to fight for his beliefs, and for the people -- and the country -- that he loves." (22:09:57) Later, former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell harkened back to 2016, touting Trump, who, during that cycle's debates "stood alone and said in public what most Americans thought in private." "No candidate could bring themselves to admit that something had gone badly wrong with American foreign policy. That the American voter, the American soldier, and the American taxpayer, had all been let down. Except for one - Donald Trump. He called America's endless wars what they were: A disaster." (22:19:10) Grenell, also the former ambassador to Germany, stuck mostly to foreign policy and characterized the president as a savvy diplomat who still managed to negotiate like a businessman. "I've watched President Trump charm the Chancellor of Germany, while insisting that Germany pay its NATO obligations. I was proud to witness President Trump say to foreign leaders: "I don't blame you for wanting America to pay for your security. I actually respect you for out-negotiating the Presidents before me. But it stops with me. I won't let the American taxpayer be taken advantage of." (22:21:26) He also praised Trump's national security and defense record, arguing that a perspective rooted in nationalism had been unfairly criticized. "In four years, Donald Trump didn't start any new wars. He brought troops home. He rebuilt the military, and signed peace deals that make Americans safer. The Washington elites want you to think this kind of foreign policy is immoral. And so they call it "nationalist." That tells you all you need to know. The DC crowd thinks when they call Donald Trump a nationalist, they're insulting him. As if the American president isn't supposed to base foreign policy on America's national interests." (22:22:03) Turning to Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, Grenell honed in on Biden's age and questioned his efficacy as a leader given his long tenure in Washington. "Don't be fooled - the Washington establishment is trying to sell you on their candidate. Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972. 48 years ago." (22:23:58) "It's actually the typical Washington story. Just this year, 22 Democrats ran for President. They rejected all the outsiders, and nominated the ultimate Washington insider. Someone they had to pull out of retirement. Every time Joe Biden offers a new idea, you should ask yourself: "Why didn't he try that over the last 48 years?" (22:24:24)

5540 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC RNC CLEAN POOL 08262020 190000 2020 ***DO NOT EDIT OR MODIFY THIS DOC IN ANY WAY. ONLY LOGGERS ARE PERMITTED. WEDNESDAY AUGUST 26 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION FULL LOG 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 190000 2020 203006 VO>> Long before the shots fired at Concord, were men and women of remarkable character and fortitude. An extraordinary spirit fueled the dreams they held. That spirit lived on to win liberty in the Revolution, embolden the underground railroads. It strengthened the brave souls at Normandy. 230032 It endured with those who gallantly fought the spread of communism. And on 9/11, that same spirit was found in the men and women storming the gates of death to save precious lives. The spirit of heroism thrives in the presence of tyranny, disaster. It is stronger than any virus. 203058 Yet there are those who condemn our heroes, seek to erase history, deconstruct the American ideals, remake America into something it was never intended to be. But the spirit of heroism stands in the breach. It lives in the heart. It breathes in the soul. And is woven into the courageous fabric of Americans like you. It preserves liberty. It strengthens families. It empowers the extraordinary. 203132 The spirit of heroism inspires us to act when others are in need, to do the right thing. Join us tonight. Dream heroic dreams. Celebrate America, land of the free, home of the brave. 203200 >> From Washington D.C., welcome to the 2020 Republican National Convention. Tonight, celebrating America as the land of heroes. 203225 >> Lord, almighty god, we come before you this evening and pray for your divine protection over our brothers and sisters in the path of storms along our Gulf Coast. You are our rock and our shelter, in the midst of the storms of life. You are the god who commands the winds and the waves, and we pray that He will provide refuge to our people. 203252 Oh, lord, you have granted us certain natural rights such as the right to speak freely, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness as well as religious freedom, the right to assemble and the right to self-defense. Only in America have these god-given rights so flourished and been categorized as belonging to the people, embodying the very essence of our government. 223322 Father, we pray that this outlook and mindset, this form of government continues, as has been our history, especially now when, to our horror, it is being challenged. And so, we pray that god give strength and health to our President who has splendidly demonstrated daily his determination to defend and maintain the god-given rights of our citizens, as enshrined in our constitution and in our declaration. 203356 [And] eloquently passed down through our Judeoo-Christian tradition. President Trump has stood up fearlessly against those corrupting the term "social justice," so as to deny Americans their birthright and these divine gifts. 203413 May god protect him. May god bless all those in government and among our citizens who seek to honor, defend, and preserve our heritage. This land was founded in an epic and providential moment. Like the revelation at sinai, it was the moment when the vision of god rendezvoused with the soaring and noble plans of appointed men. Yet every so often, apace various generations, we are compelled to resurrect and give rebirth to our providential beginning, to renew our present days with the exuberance of those founding days. 203501 Perhaps that is what is meant when you say make America great again. We pledge to viginantly protect and tend the garden so as to imbibe its blessed fruits. May god continue to make America great and may we continue to be his people, one nation, under god, and let us say amen. 203530 >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands. One nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. KRISTI NOEM 203557 NOEM>> Good evening. I'm governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota. I'm here tonight because I believe America is an exceptional nation, founded on three principles: equality, freedom, and opportunity. But today, our founding principles are under attack. This year the choice for Americans is between a man who values these ideals, and all that can be built because of them, and a man who isn't guided by these ideals and coincidentally has built nothing. 203628 Remember, America's battle for Independence and fight for self governance was something that had never been done before. Men of great intellect and wisdom like James Madison, the father of our constitution, hoped our constitutional republic would last for ages, mitigate the problems that would naturally arise from political factions, and prevent tyranny. Madison also authored much of the bill of rights. 203653 Because he understood the natural tendency of government to increasingly encroach on the people's consent, and thus, our freedom. He urged his colleagues to adopt these amendments to enshrine in our Constitution the ideals laid out in the declaration of Independence, that all power comes from the people. That the government is created and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people. Our constitution guarantees the right to speak, to assemble, and to worship. 203725 The right to arm ourselves as a counterbalance to a standing army. And the right to a fair and equitable criminal justice system. We must fight to protect these foundational rights from government interference and indifference. America is unique in the world. Government's power at all levels is limited to the confines of our constitution, which protects our god-given liberties and civil rights. We are not and will not be the subjects of an elite class of so-called experts. 203759 We, the people, are the government. Now at times our country has struggled to live up to our founding principles. Another great American, Abraham Lincoln, knew that struggle better than anybody. When he was just 28 years old, honest Abe saw wild and furious passions worse than savage mobs, he said, taking the place of reason and judgment. He was alarmed by the increasing disregard for the rule of law throughout the country. He was concerned for the people that had seen their property destroyed, their families attacked, and their lives threatened or even taken away. 203837 These good people were becoming tired of and disgusted with a government that offered no protection. Sound familiar? It took 244 years to build this great nation, flaws and all. But we stand to lose it in a tiny fraction of that time, if we continue down the path taken by the Democrats and their radical supporters. From Seattle and Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs. 203910 The violence is rampant. There's looting, chaos, destruction, and murder. People that can afford to flee have fled but the people that can't, good hard-working Americans, are left to fend for themselves. The Republican party's commitment to individual rights and self government is as necessary today as it was in 1860, when we won our first presidential election. 203937 Our party respects individuals based on who they are. We don't divide people based on their belief or their roots. We don't shun people who think for themselves. We respect everyone, equally, under the constitution, and we treat them as Martin Luther King Jr. wished, according to the content of their character, not the color of their skin. 204001 In just four years, President Trump has lifted people of all races and backgrounds out of poverty. He shrunk government. He put money back into the pockets of hard-working, ordinary Americans. He has advanced religious liberty, he protected the second amendment. You can look back 50 years, you won't find anyone that has surpassed President Trump's success on these four issues alone. 204027 History chooses its heros for the time in which they live. At our founding, Madison was one of the chosen. When the nation's very existence was challenged it was Lincoln's turn. Thanks to these men, America is a land of hope. Their examples have been repeated in countless ways by simple Americans following their conscience. But there is another American hero to be recognized. And that is the common American. 204057 This is who president Trump is fighting for. He's fighting for you. SCOTT DANE 204121 DANE>> I'm Scott Dane. I represent loggers and truckers in Minnesota, but I also represent a way of life. Logging's been a part of the great American story from the beginning. In fact. if you go to the capitol rotunda and look up, you can see loggers on one of the panels -- New England settlers carving out a new world from the wilderness. Logging is the most dangerous job in the country, but we embrace that risk because we know America was built by strong people, building things together. America needs us to keep building and we can't wait to be a part of it. 204157 But the last time Joe Biden was in the white house, Minnesota lost nearly half of its mills, thousands of jobs, and experienced nearly a decade of decline. It was a similar story in other parts of the country. The administration just didn't seem to care, and 47 years in Washington, Joe Biden hasn't done anything for the timber industry. When plants close in Duluth, Sartel, Cook, and Bemidji, they were just numbers on paper to the Obama-Biden administration. To me they were people and jobs and families. 204233 Under obama-biden, radical environmentalists were allowed to kill the forest. Wildfire after wildfire shows the consequences. Managed forests, the kind my people work in, are healthy forests. Under president trump, we've seen a new recognition of the value of forest management in reducing wildfires. And we've seen new support for our way of life where a strong back and a strong work ethic can build a strong middle class. 204258 We want to build families where we were raised and stand by communities that stood by us. We want that way of life available for the next generation and we want our forests there, too. President Trump, thank you for helping us do just that. MARSHA BLACKBURN 204335 BLACKBURN>> Hi, I'm US Senator Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee. America is a nation of heroes. In times of difficulty, we're reminded that they're all around us. They're in the line with us at the grocery store, in the pew with us at church. They're the regular American who step up to volunteer and serve when we need them most. 204400 They've stood at the forefront throughout this pandemic. The emergency room nurses who go back shift after shift. 204411 The medical researchers developing a vaccine and therapies to combat what the Chinese communist regime unleashed on the world. Cookville's Double Strings Church of Christ members, lifting our country up in prayer and providing for those impacted by tragedy. But tonight, I want to talk to you about another kind of hero. The kind democrats don't recognize because they don't fit into their narrative. I'm talking about the heroes from law enforcement and armed services. 204453 Leftists turned them into villains. They want to cancel them. But I'm here to tell you, these heroes can't be cancelled. Tennessee is full of them. After all, we're the volunteer state. My dad served in the Army in World War 2. When he came home, he put on another uniform, and for 30 years, volunteered to help our under funded sheriff's department. I'm reminded of him whenever I see compassion and selflessness in others. 204530 When I see law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every single day to keep our community safe, in spite of the hatred thrown at them. When I see the heroes who volunteer to serve our country, putting their lives on the line for their freedom. Many of these heroes call Tennessee home and we could not be more proud of the brave men and women of the 101st airborne division at Fort Campbell. 204605 The common thread between them is a deep seeded desire to serve a cause larger than themselves. They don't believe their country owes them anything. They believe they owe their country and their fellow man. As hard as Democrats try, they can't cancel our heroes. They cannot contest their behavery and they can't dismiss the powerful sense of service that lives deep in their souls. 204643 So they try to defund them -- our military, our police, even ICE -- to take away their tools to keep us safe. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and their radical allies try to destroy these heroes because if there are no heroes to inspire us, government can control us. They close our churches, but keep the liquor stores and abortion clinics open. 204714 They say, we can't gather in community groups, but encourage protests, riots, and looting in the streets. If the Democrats had their way, they would keep you locked in your house until you become dependent on the government for everything. That sounds a lot like communist China to me. Maybe that's why Joe Biden is so soft on them, why Nancy Pelosi says that China would prefer Joe Biden. Yep. I bet they would. 204749 But, President Trump has stood up for our heroes every day. He stood by our law enforcement, our military, and the freedoms we hold dear. He's made good on his promise to put America first. And I hope you will stand with me as we send him back for four more years, with a clear message to the democrats, you will never cancel our heroes. DAN CRENSHAW 204828 CRENSHAW>>> Hi, I'm Congressman Dan Crenshaw. 8 years ago, in the fields of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, a close friend and teammate laid down cover fire against Taliban insurgents so that I could walk, blind and bloodied, to the Med-Evac helicopter, and survive. But he didn't. Dave Orson was killed 2 months later. 204848 He died a hero to this great country. Here's the truth about America: we are a country of heroes. I believe that. So should you. We are a people with a common set of ideals, conceived in liberty. People that have sacrificed, time and time again, for the freedom and freedom of others -- that's something that no country ever, anywhere can claim. 204911 Since 9/11, I've seen America's heroes up close. Some of them saved my life. Some of them saved many others lives. Many of them never made it home. These heroes act as if the whole struggle depended on them alone, as if any weakness on their part would be a reflection of the whole nation. That is called duty. 204930 And America has a long history of it. Our enemies fear us, because Americans can fight for good and we know it. It gives us strength. When our heroes are trusted and equipped, then freedom prevails. The defeat of ISIS was the result of America believing in our heroes. Our president having their backs and rebuilding our military so we'd have what we needed to finish the mission. 204955 The cowering of the Iranian regime and the restoration of the deterrence once lost is the result of America believing in her own might again. America's heroism isn't relegated to the battlefield. Every single day we see them, if you just know where to look. It's the nurse who volunteers for back-to-back shifts caring for covid patients because she feels that's her duty. It's the parent who will relearn algebra because there's no way they are letting their kids fall behind while schools are closed. 205023 And it's the cop that gets spit on one day and will saves a child's life the next. America is the country where the young military wife of two young children answers the unexpected knock at the door, looks the man in uniform in the eye and even as her whole world comes crashing down, she stands up straight, she holds back tears and takes care of her family because she must. 205048 This is what heroism looks like, it's who we are, a nation of heroes. And we need you now more than ever. We need to remind ourselves what heroism really is. Heroism is self-sacrifice. It's not moralizing and lecturing over others when they disagree. Heroism is grace, not perpetual outrage. Heroism is rebuilding our communities, not destroying them. 205115 Heroism is renewing faith in the symbols that unite us, not tearing them down. See, America is a fabric. It's woven from the threads of history's best stories, best attributes, and greatest ideas. The American spirit reflects the oldest and most important virtues: self sacrifice, courage, tolerance, love of country, grace, and passion for human achievement. 205136 We can decide, right now, that American greatness will not be rejected nor squandered. As the American founding was grounded in individual liberty, so will be our future. But if we are to rediscover our strength, then it must be an endeavor undertaken by each and every one of us. We must become the heroes that we so admire. 205158 America was built by them, and our future will be protected by them. It will be protected by you. So, god bless America. GEN KEITH KELLOGG 205215 KELLOGG>> Good evening. I'm retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg. In 1967, at the age of 22, I volunteered to serve my country in Vietnam. From the jungles of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq, I have gone where my nation asked. I have borne witness to soldiers' last moments on Earth, their lives spent in hope and promise of a better future for all Americans. 205246 I was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. I lost friends there that day. In the years that followed, I watched my daughter, son, and son-in-law deploy to Afghanistan. I have looked into the eyes of my grandchildren as they said goodbye to their fathers and hugged them one last time. I lived (?) service. I understand sacrifice. I know leadership. 205315 Over the past 3 1/2 years, I have witnessed every major foreign policy and national security decision by the President. I have been in the room where it happened. I saw only one agenda and one guiding question, when tough calls had to be made: is this decision right for America? When President Donald Trump took office, decades of failed foreign policy had crippled us. 205347 He faced wars without end in sight, creation of failed states like Libya and Syria, a past that allowed a terrorist caliphate to grow, and leadership in Washington that allowed our military to atrophy, while we spent trillions of dollars abroad instead of investing at home. President Trump has reversed the decline of our military, and restructured our national security strategy. 205414 With historic investment and vision, our military is now better equipped, better resourced, and better manned than any military in the world. President Trump demolished the terrorist ISIS caliphate in the Middle East and eliminated its leader, Al baghdadi, one of the world's most brutal terrorists. President Trump took decisive action against Iranian terrorist mastermind, Qasem Soleimani, the man responsible for deaths of hundreds of American servicemen in Iraq. 205450 When our NATO allies failed to meet their commitments as we upheld ours, President Trump demanded parity. NATO members have now increased their contributions over $100 billion this year and NATO's Secretary General credits President Donald J. Trump. President Trump challenged and continues to challenge an ever-increasingly provocative and militant China. But make no mistake, President Trump is no hawk. 205521 He wisely wields the sword when required, but believes in seeking peace instead of perpetual conflict. Just over a week ago, our president brokered a peace agreement between the united Arab Emirates and Israel, the first in the Middle East in over 25 years. And this week, Afghan negotiators, with help from American officials, will start peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government to end America's longest war. 205558 Ask yourself: has this president kept his promises to keep us out of needless conflicts and to pursue ending wars without end? Has he defended your interests in renegotiating trade deals that previously hurt Americans and our national security? Has he fulfilled his commander in chief role by decisively going after the nation's enemies? You and I know the answer is yes. 205629 The choice is clear. This is the most important election of our lifetime. The next four years will decide the course of our country for decades to come. I am asking you to stand up and be counted so we never have to look back and recall what it was once like in America when men and women were free, our families were secure, and we had a president who served the people. 205701 God bless America. Thank you, and good night. TERA MEYERS 205730 MEYERS>> Good evening, my name is Tara Meyers. Tonight I am here as a wife and mother to share how education freedom has personally impacted my family, especially the life of my son Samuel. Before Samuel was even born, I was told his life wouldn't be worth living. When early tests revealed he had down syndrome, our doctor encouraged me to terminate the pregnancy. 205757 He said "if you do not, you will be burdening your life, your family and your community." I knew my baby was a human being created by god, and that made him worthy of life. I am thankful that president Trump values the life of the unborn. When we went to register samuel for kindergarten, we were told to just put him where he would be comfortable. Don't stress him out by trying to teach him. 205825 When we pushed for him to attend his neighborhood school with his sisters, we were told just go home and let us do what we do. When I inquired about functional learning, I was told, this is all you get, like it or not. Well, I did not like it. One size did not fit all. So I helped fight to pass legislation in Ohio, for a special needs scholarship, so that all students could choose the right program for their needs. 205857 I worked to start a new functional learning program at our local private school. Finally, Samuel had an appropriate place to learn. Last December, Samuel was invited to the White House to meet our president and share his thoughts on education freedom. He said, "school choice helped my dreams come true. My school taught me the way I learn best. I was able to fit in. I made many friends. I became a part of my community. My teachers helped me become the best I can be." President Trump shook my hand and said, wonderful job, mom. Your son is amazing. 205939 Unlike the doctor who told me to end Samuel's life before it even began. President trump did not dismiss my son. He showed Samuel he valued him and was proud of what he accomplished. President Trump gave Samuel an equal seat at the table. Tonight I would like to extend my thanks to president trump and his administration for their work toward making every student's dream of a meaningful education a reality. 5533 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHARLOTTE NC SWITCHED FEED POOL 210000 2020 210011 And for fighting to ensure every child in America has an equal seat at the table of education freedom and an equal opportunity in life. Thank you. And may god bless America. [RNC VIDEO "SUFFRAGE"] 210040 VO>> It all started at a tea party, 13 years before the American civil war. Civil unrest and division separated countrymen into two opposing camps: one determined to keep African-American people enslaved. The other, determined to see all people free. 210105 Elizabeth Katie Stanton and Lucretia Mott felt the call to fight for that freedom when they were selected as delegates for an anti slavery convention. But, upon arrival, were told they could not speak or vote at the male dominated event. On July 9, 1848, Mott, Stanton and three other women met for tea. 210127 By the end of the day, they had formed a coalition with the sole purpose of gaining the right for women to vote so they in turn would be free to fight for the freedoms of others. Women across America united and formed activist groups working tirelessly to win the vote for American women. The incomparable Susan B Anthony became one of the most visible leaders of women's suffrage when, in 1872, she registered and voted for every Republican on the ballot. 210158 As punishment for her actions, she was arrested for illegal voting at the request of Susan B. Anthony, Senator A.A. Sargent introduced the 19th amendment in 1878. The Susan B. Anthony Amendment was submitted and defeated five times. But, women continued to fight. Sojourner Truth and many other black suffragettes defied segregation, fighting for all women's voices to be heard and allowed to vote. 210223 For the two years prior to ratification, the silent sentinels quietly picketed the White House. Finally, when Republicans regained control of Congress, on August 26th, 1920, the Equal Suffrage Amendment was signed into law. Women's suffrage movement took 72 years and would change the lives of women forever. The victory was achieved peacefully through the valiant efforts of women patriots and the democratic process. 210252 100 years later in a bold declaration of rights for women, President Trump granted a full pardon to Susan B. Anthony on the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment's ratification. Women's suffrage was born from a desire to fight for the freedom of others. Now, we, the great patriots of America, will band together once again. And with one unified voice, we will vote for freedom. KAYLEIGH MCENANY 210330 MCENANY>> I'm Kayleigh Mcenany. You may know me as a supporter of President Trump. But tonight, I'm here to share with you how he supported me, both as a new mom and as an American with a pre-existing condition. When I was 21 years old, I got a call that changed my life. It was my doctor informing me that I had tested positive for the BRCA2 genetic mutation, a mutation that put my chances of breast cancer at 84%. 210403 It was the same mutation that my mom had, compelling her to get a preventive double mastectomy, removing her breast tissue but protecting her from a disease has taken far too many of our mothers, our sisters, our friends. In my family, eight women alone were diagnosed with breast cancer, several were in their young 20s. I now faced the same prospect. For nearly a decade, I was routinely at Moffitt Cancer Center, getting MRIs, ultrasounds, and necessary surveillance. 210443 During these visits, I cross pathed with brave women battling cancer and fighting through chemotherapy. They were a testament to American strength. They are American heroes. On May 1st, 2018, I followed in my mother's footsteps, choosing to get a preventive mastectomy. I was scared. The night before, I fought back tears as I prepared to lose a piece of myself forever. But the next day with my mom, dad, husband, and Jesus Christ by my side, I underwent a mastectomy, almost eliminating my chance of breast cancer. 210530 A decision I now celebrate. Breast reconstruction has advanced remarkably. While it is an individual's decision, my doctor and I chose a course of surgery that left me virtually unchanged. But more important than physical results, I developed a strength and a confidence that I carry with me. During one of my most difficult times, I expected to have the support of my family, but I had more support than I knew. As I came out of anesthesia, one of the first calls I received was from Ivanka Trump. 210607 As I recovered, my phone rang again. It was president Trump, calling to check on me. I was blown away. Here was the leader of the free world, caring about my circumstance. At the time, I had only met president Trump on a few occasions, but now I know him well. And I can tell you that this president stands by Americans with preexisting conditions. In fact, President Trump called me this morning, I spoke with him several times today, and he told me how proud he was of me for sharing this story. 210646 The same way president Trump has supported me, he supports you. I see it everyday. I've heard him say the hardest part of his job is writing to loved ones of fallen soldiers. I've seen him offer heartfelt outreach to grieving parents who lost their children to crime in the streets. And I have watched them fight for Americans who lost their jobs. President Trump fights for the American people, because he cares about stories like these. I have a nine-month-old daughter. She's a beautiful sweet little girl, and I choose to work for this president for her. 210735 When I look into my baby's eyes, I see a new life, amiracle for which I have a solemn responsibility to protect. That means protecting America's future, a future President Trump will fight for. Where our neighborhoods are protected. Where life is sacred. Where god is cherished, not taken out of our schools, removed from our pledge, and erased from our history. I want my daughter to grow up in President Donald J. Trump's America. 210804 Choosing to have a preventative mastectomy was the hardest decision I ever had to make. But supporting President Trump, who will protect my daughter and our children's future, was the easiest. KAREN PENCE 210851 KAREN PENCE>> Good evening. Karen Pence, my husband is Vice President Mike Pence. 100 years ago, today, the 19th amendment was adopted into the United States constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Because of heroes like Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone, women today -- like our daughters Audrey and Charlotte -- and future generations will have their voices heard and their votes count. 210921 The women's suffrage movement was the gateway that led to women having the opportunities to achieve monumental milestones and accomplish significant achievements in both civic and governmental roles. This evening, we look at heroes in our land. As Second Lady of the United States for the past three and a half years, I have had the honor of meeting many heroes across this great country. The Pences are a military family. 210955 Our son Michael serves in the United States Marines. And our son-in-law Henry serves in the US Navy. And one of my key initiatives is to elevate and encourage military spouses. These men and women like our daughter Charlotte and our daughter-in-law Sarah are the home front heroes. I have been privileged to hear so many stories of selfless support, volunteer spirit and great contributions to the armed forces and our communities. 211029 You know, military spouses may experience frequent moves and job changes, periods of being a single parent while their loved one is deployed, all while exhibiting pride, strength and determination and being a part of something bigger than themselves. To all of the military spouses, thank you. President Trump and Vice President Pence have been supporting our United States armed forces including our military families on a significant scale. 211103 While traveling throughout our nation to educate military spouses about policy solutions that President Trump has promoted involving real, tangible progress in military spouse employment, I have been inspired to meet heroes like Lisa Bradley and Cameron Cruz. 211126 These military spouses decided to start their own business R-Riveter, named after the Rosie the Riveter campaign used to recruit women workers during World War II. R-Riveter makes beautiful handbags designed and manufactured exclusively by military spouses. And many of those spouses live all over the country. They prepare and send their section of the bags to the company located in North Carolina where the final product is assembled. 211158 Military spouse hero Jilan Hall-Johnson in Billings, Montana, is a culinary artist who had dreamed of starting her own restaurant. Working with the small business administration's development center, Jilan started her restaurant, the Sassy Biscuit. 211218 And she just opened a second restaurant in Dover, New Hampshire. And as the second lady, I've also been able to bring awareness to a form of therapy for our heroic veterans suffering from PTSD. Art therapy facilitated by a professional art therapist is especially effective with posttraumatic stress disorder. Master gunnery sergeant Chris Stowe a marine veteran I met in Tampa, who deployed for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, said nothing had helped him deal with the trauma from his service in the Marines, until he finally agreed to meet with the art therapist at Walter Reed medical center 211305 Chris credits art therapy with saving his marriage and his life. And Chris went on to establish a glass blowing workshop to help other Vets. Many of our veteran heroes struggle as they transition back into civilian life. And, sometimes, the stress is too difficult to manage alone. A few weeks ago, I had the honor of speaking with some amazing Americans who answer the Veterans Crisis Line. 211335 One, in particular, Sydney Morgan, especially impacted me. A veteran herself, Sydney said, it is the highest honor of her life, until they physically walk into a clinic to receive help they deserve, and she can pass their hand to someone ready to help. 211358 In these difficult time, we've all seen so many examples of everyday Americans reaching out a hand to those in need. Those who, in humility, have considered others more important than themselves. We've seen health care workers, teachers, first responders, mental health providers, law enforcement officers, grocery and delivery workers and farmers. 211427 And so many others. Heroes, all. 100 years ago women secured the right to vote, so let's vote, America. Let's honor our heroes. Let's re-elect president trump and vice president pence for four more years. God bless our heroes, and god bless the United States of America. 211458 VO>> We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. KELLYANNE CONWAY 211517 CONWAY>> Good evening. I'm Kellyanne Conway. 100 years ago, courageous warriors helped women secure the right to vote. This has been a century worth celebrating, but also a reminder that our democracy is young and fragile. A woman in a leadership role can still seem novel. Not so for President Trump. For decades, he has elevated women to senior positions in business and in government. 211547 He confides in and consults us, respects our opinions, and insists that we are on equal footing with the men. President Trump helped me shatter a barrier in the world of politics by empowering me to manage his campaign to its successful conclusion.With the help of millions of Americans, our team defied the critics, the naysayers, the conventional wisdom and we won. For many of us, women's empowerment is not a slogan. 211617 It comes not from strangers on social media orr sanitized language in a corporate handbook. It comes from the everyday heroes who nurture us, who shape us, and who believe in us. I was raised in a household of all women. They were self-reliant and resilient. Their lives were not easy. But they never complained. Money was tight, but we had an abundance of what mattered most, family, faith and freedom. 211652 I learned that, in America, limited means does not make for limited dreams. The promise of America belongs to us all. This is a land of inventors and innovators, of entrepreneurs and educators, of pioneers and parents -- each contributing to the success and the future of a great nation and her people. These everyday heroes have a champion in President Trump. 211725 The teacher who took extra time to help students adjust to months of virtual learning. The nurse who finished a 12-hour COVID shift and then took a brief break only to change her mask, gown, and gloves to do it all over again. The small business owner striving to reopen after the lockdown was lifted and then again after her store was vandalized and looted. 211753 The single mom with two kids, two jobs, two commutes, who ten years after that empty promise, finally has health insurance. President Trump and vice president Pence have lifted Americans, provided them with dignity, opportunity and results. I have seen firsthand many times the president comforting and encouraging a child who has lost a parent, a parent who has lost a child, a worker who lost his job, an adolescent who lost her way to drugs. 211836 "Don't lose hope," he has told them, assuring them that they are not alone, and that they matter. There always will be people who have far more than us. Our responsibility is to focus on those who have far less than us. President Trump has done precisely that, in taking unprecedented action to combat this nation's drug crisis. 211903 He told me, this is so important, Kellyanne, so many lives have been ruined by addiction, and we'll never even know it, because people are ashamed to reach out for help, and they're not even sure who to turn to in their toughest hour. Rather than look the other way, President Trump stared directly at this drug crisis next door and through landmark bitarsian legislation has helped secure historic investments in surveillance, interdiction, education, prevention, treatment and recovery. 211936 We have a long way to go, but the political inertia that cost lives and the silence and the stigma that prevents people in need from coming forward is melting away. This is the man I know and the president we need for four more years. He picks the toughest fights and tackles the most complex problems. 212001 He has stood by me, and he will stand up for you. In honor of the women who empowered me and for the future of the children we all cherish, thank you and God bless you, always. DIDI BURN 212033 DIDI BURN>> Good evening. I'm sister Didi Burn and I belong to the community of the Little Workers of the Sacred Heart's of Jesus and Mary. Last 4th of July, I was honored to be one of the president's guests at his salute to America celebration. I must confess that I recently prayed while in chapel, begging God to allow me to be a voice and instrument for human life. And now, here I am, speaking at the Republican National Convention. I guess you better be careful for what you pray for. My journey towards religious life is not a traditional route, if there is such a thing. 212111 In 1978, as a medical stud-- school student at Georgetown University, I joined the Army to help pay for my tuition, and ended up devoting 29 years to the military, serving as a doctor and a surgeon in places like Afghanistan and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. After much prayer and contemplation, I entered my religious order in 2002, working to serve the poor and the sick in Haiti, Sudan, Kenya, Iraq, and in Washington, D.C. 212144 Humility is at the foundation of our order which makes it difficult to talk about myself, but I can speak about my experience working for those fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries all around the world. Those refugees all share a common experience. They have been all marginalized, viewed as insignificant, powerless and voiceless. And while we tend to think of the marginalized as living beyond our borders, the truth is the largest marginalized group in the world can be found here in the United States. 212220 They are the unborn. As Christians we first met Jesus as a stirring embryo in the womb of an unwed mother and saw him born nine months later in the poverty of a cave. It's no coincidence that Jesus stood up for what was just and ultimately crucified because what he said wasn't politically correct or fashionable. 212244 As followers of Christ, we are called to stand up for life against the politically correct or fashionable of today. We must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb. Keep in mind, the laws we create define how we see our humanity, and we must ask ourselves: what are we saying when we go into a womb and snuff out an innocent, powerless voice's life? 212315 As a physician, I can say without hesitation: life begins at conception. While what I have to say may be difficult for some to hear, I am saying it because I'm not just pro-life, I'm pro eternal life. And I want all of us to end up in heaven together some day. Which brings me to why I'm here today -- Donald Trump is the most pro-life President that this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages. 212345 His belief in the sanctity of life transcends politics. President Trump will stand up against Biden-Harris who are the most anti-life Presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late-term abortion and infanticide. Because of his courage and conviction, President Trump has earned the support of America's pro-life community. 212410 Moreover, he has a nation wide of religions standing behind him. You'll find us with our weapon of choice, the rosary. So thank you Mr. President, we are all praying for you. LOU HOLTZ 212429 HOLTZ>> I'm Lou Holtz. Many of you know me as Coach Holtz, or maybe that football guy. It is a pleasure, a blessing, and an honor, for me to explain why I believe that President Trump is a consistent winner, an outstanding leader, and deserves to be re-elected as our president. First, I want you to know that I grew up in a one-bedroom house in West Virginia. I may have been poor, but the lessons my parents taught me were priceless. 212500 They taught me that life is about making choices. Wherever you are, good or bad, don't blame anyone else. Go get an education, get to work. You can overcome any obstacles. And always remember, that in this great country of ours, anyone can amount to something special. I lived by those principles of hard work, and responsibility my whole life. 212526 Living out the the American story, and it works. But there are people today like politicians, professors, protesters, and of course president trump's nay-sayers in the media who like to blame others for problems. They don't have pride in our country. They make us say no longer ask, what can I do for my country? Only what the country should be doing for them. They don't have pride in themselves. That's wrong. 212600 When I was an officer in the army, I served with so many great Americans who embraced the responsibility to our country. I'm so proud of their sacrifices and the opportunity it has provided for so many millions. America remains a land of opportunity, no matter what the other side says or believes. You know, there's a statue of me at Notre Dame. I guess they needed a place for the pigeons to land. 212629 But if you look closely, you will see these three words there: trust, commitment, and love. All my life, I have made my choices based on these three words. I use these three rules to make choices about everything. My beloved wife of 59 years, athletes I coached, and of course, politicians. Even President Trump. I ask myself three things. 212657 One, can I trust them? When a leader tells you something, you gotta be able to count on it. That is President Trump. He says what he means, he means what he says, and he's done what he said he would do at every single turn. One of the important reasons he has my trust is because nobody has been a stronger advocate for the unborn than President Trump. 212723 The Biden-Harris ticket is the most radically pro-abortion campaign in history. They and other politicians are Catholic in name only, and abandoned innocent lives. 212737 President Trump protects those lives. I trust President Trump. The second question I ask is are they committed to doing their very best? President Trump always finds a way to get something done. If you want to do something bad enough, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse. And excuses are a lot easier to find than solutions. 212805 President Trump finds solutions, president trump is committed. The third question I ask is do they love people? Do they care about others? To me this is very clear. President trump has demonstrated through his prison reform, advocating for school choice, and welfare reform. He wants Americans from all walks of life to have the opportunity to succeed and live the American dream. President trump loves our country and our great people. Trust, commitment, and love. In President trump we have a president we can trust, who works hard at making America greater. 212850 And who genuinely cares about people. If I apply this test to Joe Biden, I can't say yes to any of these three questions. I used to ask our athletes at notre dame "if you did not show up, who would miss you and why?" Can you imagine what would happen to us if president trump had not shown up in 2016 to run for president? I'm so glad he showed up. 212919 Thank you for showing up, Mr. President. I encourage everyone who loves this country, who loves America, to show up in November for President Trump. Thank you. MICHAEL MCHALE 212938 MCHALE>> Hi, I'm Michael McHale, but my friends call me "Mick." I'm a 30 active duty member of law enforcement in the state of Florida. I am also the president of the national association of police organizations, NAPO. Our organization recently endorsed Donald Trump for re-election as President of the United States. Our endorsement recognized his strong support for the men and women on the front lines, particularly during these challenging times. 213010 We value his support of aggressive prosecution of those who attack our police officers. His signing of the law enforcement mental health and wellness act and his support for permanently authorizing funds to support 9/11 first responders and their families. Law enforcement officers across the nation take an oath to run towards danger when everyone else is running away. They do so willingly to protect our families and communities. 213046 I'm proud that the overwhelming majority of American police officers are the best of the best and put their lives on the line without hesitation. And good officers need to know their elected leaders, and the department brass, have their backs. Unfortunately, chaos results when failed officials in cities like Portland, Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York make the conscious decision not to support law enforcement. 213120 Shootings, murders, looting, rioting occur unabated. The violence and bloodshed we are seeing in these and other cities isn't happening by chance. 213132 It's the direct result of refusing to allow law enforcement to protect our communities. Joe Biden has turned his candidacy over to the far Left, anti-law enforcement radicals. And as a Senator, Kamala Harris pushed to further restrict police, cut their training, and make our American communities and streets even more dangerous than they already are. 213202 Conversely, President Trump supports the creation of a national standard for training on deescalation and communication to give officers more tools to resolve conflict without violence. The differences between Trump-Pence and Biden-Harris are crystal clear. Your choices are the most pro law enforcement president we've ever had, or the most radical anti-police ticket in history. 213239 We invite those who value the safety of their family and loved ones to join the hundreds of thousands of members of the national association of police organizations and support the re-election of president Donald J. Trump. Thank you and god bless America. ELISE STEFANIK 213315 STEFANIK>> I'm Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, and I'm honored to represent New York's 21st Congressional District, the cradle of the American revolution. It's where, almost 250 years ago, brave patriots fought in the battles of Saratoga to turn the tide of the revolutionary war. It's where, 40 years ago in Lake Placid, a team of amateur hockey players out hustled, outskated, and defeated the Soviet Union, stunning the world and giving up the unforgettable miracle on ice. 213349 And today, it's home to fort Drumm and the historic tenth mountain division, the most deployed unit in the U.S. army since 9/11, where I saw first hand president trump graciously thank and honor our men and women in uniform and sign the largest pay raise for our troops in a decade. 213406 Since our nation's founding generation after generation of everyday Americans served and sacrificed to preserve and strengthen the American dream. The vision of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and the idea that if you work hard and dream big, you can achieve anything you imagine. I believe in the American dream because I've lived it. Like millions of Americans, I grew up in a small business family where I learned the values of hard work and determination. 213441 I was the first person in my immediate family to graduate from college, ran for Congress to serve upstate New York, and am proudly the youngest Republican woman elected to Congress in history. I am honored to support President Trump for re-election because I know that he is the only candidate who will stand up for hard working families and protect the American dream for future generations. 213509 Since his first day in office, President Trump has fought tirelessly to deliver results for all Americans, despite the Democrats' baseless and illegal impeachment sham and the media's endless obsession with it. 213523 I was proud to lead the effort standing up for the constitution, President trump, and most importantly the American people. This attack was not just on the president. It was an attack on you, your voice and your vote. But the American people were not swayed by these partisan attacks. Our support for president trump is stronger than ever before. 213547 We know what's at stake in this historic election. Americans from all walks of life are unified in support of our president. It's why more Republican women than ever are running for office this year. We understand that this election is a choice between the far left democratic socialist agenda versus protecting and preserving the American dream. President Trump is working to safely reopen our main street economy. 213617 He understands that the engine of our country is fuelled by the ingenuity and determination of American workers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. Joe Biden wants to keep them locked up in the basement and crush them with $4 trillion in new taxes. We face a critical choice. Joe Biden's far left failed policies of the past 47 years, or president Trump who will stand up for the American people and the constitution. 213649 I believe in the wisdom and spirit of the American people to elect the only candidate who is capable of protecting the American dream. President Donald J. Trump. Thank you to the north country for the opportunity to serve as your voice supporting his re-election. God bless the United States of America, the greatest country on Earth. MADISON CAWTHORN 213726 HAWTHORNE>> Good evening. I'm Madison Hawthorne, and I'm running to represent North Carolina's 11th Congressional District. This is a time of great adversity for our country, and I know something about adversity. At 18 years old, I was in a horrific car accident that's left me paralyzed from the waist down. Instantly, my hopes and dreams were seemingly destroyed. I was given a 1% chance of surviving. But thanks to the power of prayer, a very loving community and many skilled doctors, I made it. It took me over a year to recover. 213800 My first public outing in a wheelchair was to a professional baseball game. You know, before my accident I was 6'3". I stood out in a crowd. But as I wheeled through the stadium I felt invisible. At 20, I thought about giving up. However, I knew I could still make a difference. You know, my accident has given me new eyes to see and new ears to hear. God protected my mind and my ability to speak. So I say to people who feel forgotten, ignored and invisible, I see you. I hear you. 213835 At 20, I made a choice and 2020, our country has a choice. We can give up on the American idea or we can work together to make our imperfect union more perfect. I choose to fight for the future, to seize the high ground and retake the shining city on a hall. While the radical left wants to dismantle, defund and destroy, Republicans under president trump's leadership want to rebuild, restore and renew. 213905 I just turned 25. When I'm elected this November, I'll be the youngest member of Congress in over 200 years. And if you don't think young people can change the world, then you just don't know American history. George Washington was 21 when he received his first military commission. Abe Lincoln, 22, when he first ran for office. And my personal favorite, James Madison was just 25 years old when he signed the declaration of Independence. 213932 In times of peril, young people have stepped up and saved this country, abroad and at home. We held the line, scaled the cliffs, crossed oceans, liberated camps, and cracked codes. Yet today, political forces want to usher in the digital dark ages. A time of information without wisdom. And tribalism without truth. National leaders on the left have normalized emotion-based voting and radicalized identity politics that rejects Martin Luther King's dream. 214004 MLK's dream is our dream, for all Americans to be judged solely on their character. Millions of people risk their lives every year to come here, because they believe in the dream of MLK and the American dream. Join us as, we, the party of freedom, double down on ensuring the American dream for all people. We are committed to building a new town square. It welcomes all ideas and all people. 214031 Here we will have freedom of speech, not freedom from speech. To liberals, I say let's have a conversation. Be a true liberal, listen to other ideas and let the best one prevail. And to conservatives, I say let's define what we support and win the argument in areas like healthcare and on the environment. In this new town square, you don't have to apologize for your beliefs or cower to a mob. You can kneel before god but stand for our flag. 214103 The American idea my ancestors fought for during the revolutionary war, is just as exciting and revolutionary today as it was 250 years ago. I say to Americans who love our country, young and old, be a radical for freedom. Be a radical for liberty. 214123 [HAWTHORNE STANDS] And be a radical for our republic, for which I stand. One nation, under god, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you and may god bless America. JACK BREWER 214155 BREWER>> I'm Jack Brewer, a former 3 time NFL team captain, College professor, coach, husband, son and father. I'm also a lifelong Democrat, but I support Donald Trump. Let me be clear: I didn't come here for the popularity or the praise, the likes or the retweets. I'm here as a servant to god, a servant to the people of our nation and a servant to our president. 214223 I grew up in Grapevine, Texas, a town that my great grandfather was the first black man to settle, as a sharecropper in 1896. My early high school experience included fighting with skinheads and being the witness in an attempted murder trial after my friend shot a skinhead in self-defense. I remember my dad's bravery when he personally stood up against a KKK rally in my town. 214247 In my house, my father taught me to back down for no one. I know what racism looks like. I've seen it first hand. In America, it has no resemblance to president trump. And I'm fed up with the way he's portrayed in the media, who refuse to acknowledge what he's actually done for the Black community. 214306 It's confusing the minds of our innocent children. Before I left to come to deliver this message my energetic 8 year old son, Jackson, stopped me and said, "dad, can you please just tell everyone that all lives need to matter, and that god loves everyone?" In that moment, I realized that my 8-year-old had figured out what so many adults have seemed to forget. We are not as divided as our politics suggest. 214337 At some point for the sake of our children, the policies must take priority over the personalities. So because you have an issue with president trump's tone you are going to allow Biden and Harris to deny our underserved black and brown children school choice? Are we so offended by the president's campaign slogan, make America great again, we're going to ignore that Joe Biden and kamala Harris have collectively been responsible for locking up countless black men for nonviolent crimes. 214410 Are you going to allow the media to lie to you by falsely claiming that he said there are very fine white supremacists in Charlottesville? That's a lie. And ignore the so-called black lives matter organization that openly, on their website, calls for the destruction of the nuclear family. My fellow Americans, our families need each other. We need black fathers in the homes with their wives and children. The future of our communities depends on it. 214443 I'm blessed to be able to run inner city youth programs and to also teach in prisons across America. The inmates in my federal prison program literally receive days off their sentence just for attending my class. And that's thanks to President Donald J. Trump and his First Step Act. President Trump cared about these Americans and their families, even when so many others had left them behind and had written them off. I'm forever grateful for President Trump for that. He endures relentless attacks and so do many of us, like myself, who support him. 214519 But my mama always told me when the lord starts blessing, the devil starts messing. This convention marks a time to celebrate our history. Republicans are the party that freed the slaves and the party that put the first Black men and women in congress. It's the party of Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. And now, Tim Scott and Donald Trump. Our president has made incredible strides to end mass incarceration and give unprecedented opportunities for Black [people], in America, to rise. 214554 America, let this election be a call for all god's people who are called by His name to humble ourselves and pray together, and to seek his face and to turn from our wicked ways. Then he will hear us from heaven and he will forgive our sins and he will heal our land. Amen, and god bless America. CHEN GUANGCHENG 214644 GUANGCHENG>> Greetings. My name is Chen Guangcheng. Standing up to tyranny is not easy. I know. When I spoke out against China's one child policy, and other injustices, I was prosecuted, beaten, sent to prison and put under house arrest by the Chinese communist party, the CCP. 214717 In April 2005 I escaped and was given shelter in the American embassy in beijing. I'm forever grateful to the American people for bringing me and my family to the United States where we are now free. CCP is an enemy of humanity. 214750 It is terrorizing its own people, and it is threatening the well being of the world. In China, expressing belief or ideas not approved by the CCP -- religion, democracy, human rights -- can lead to prison. 214818 The nation lies (?) under mass surveillance and censorship. The U.S. must use its values of freedom, democracy, and the role of law to gather a coalition of other democracies to stop CCP's aggression. President Trump has led on this, and we need the other countries to join him in this fight. 214856 A fight for our future. Standing up to fight and fairness isn't easy. I know. So does President Trump. But he has shown the courage to lead that fight. We need to support, vote, and fight for President Trump for the sake of the world. Thank you. LEE ZELDIN 214936 ZELDIN>> I'm congressman Lee zeldin. Tonight, as we celebrate America as a land of heros I'm here at a VFW post of heros in west Hampton beach, New York. I've seen amazing Americans in action, raised in a law enforcement family, deployed to Iraq as an 82nd airborne paratrooper and serving today in the army reserve. My generation, of post-9/11 veterans, has huge shoes to fill, following our greatest generation that fought tyranny, and saved the world. 215011 All over our country, everyday heroes serve and sacrifice for the greater good. Farmer, truckers, craftsmen, the heroes keep America running. Craftsmen and President trump fights for them every day. This year we have especially relied on one particular group of heroes, front line medical workers. My twin daughters, Michaela and Arianna, were born over 14 weeks early. They weighed just a pound and a half. At two weeks, Michaela went into septic shock, had a stroke, and underwent brain surgery leaving one-third of the left side of her brain a hole. 215054 Her doctors didn't believe Michaela would survive, fearing dire permanent consequences even if she did. Through the miracles of modern medicine, the power of prayer, and her will to live, my daughters are now starting high school and doing great, with no long-term effects from those frightful months in the NICU. So when I learned my county's PPE stockpile was depleted, I immediately thought of those healthcare workers who saved my baby girls. 215125 Jared Kushner and I were on the phone late into that Saturday night. The very next day, President Trump announced he was sending us 200,000 N-95 masks. He actually delivered almost 400,000. That number quickly grew to 1.2 million masks, gowns, and more. The President sent thousands of ventilators to New York. He deployed the USS Comfort and converted the Javits center to a field hospital. 215156 His administration authorized our lab testing requests at blinding speed. During a once in a century pandemic, an unforeseeable crisis sent to us from a far away land, the president's effort for New York was phenomenal. 215214 For our nation to emerge even stronger, more prosperous, freer, and more secure than ever; to make our country greater than ever before, we must re-elect president trump. We are the land of the free because of the brave. And we are the land of opportunity because we have a president who wants to empower the best of who we are to be the best of what we can be. 215241 There's never been a nation greater than ours. Never a people more resilient than ours. And never a future for America more promising than ours right now. Keeping America great is up to us. And losing is not an option. [RNC VIDEO] 215305 >> And I'm very proud, very proud to have President Trump in office here, because he's the best we've ever had. He's done the most for any president ever done. >> He's always there trying to take care of veterans, giving veterans what they need. >> The turnaround times have increased since Trump has taken over. >> You had to fight 15 years for benefits. But once he came into office, you had like 90 days, you turned your paperwork in, at least you had some kind of answer. 215330 >> I waited months for a signature on a piece of paper to get a prosthetic leg fixed. Now it's an a lot better turn around, but before it was a five-year waiting process to appeal. How long do we have to wait for benefits? 215344 >> I waited 20 years to file, rapidly was approved for medical, and then right -- turned right around and got disability. I was thinking it was going to be several years worth of waiting to hear. >> He's accomplished a lot in 3 1/2 years. And it helps the American people, and he has done a lot for veterans, for the middle class. >> I chose to serve my country. If I could do it, I would do it all over again, especially for this president. I mean, he's the kind of president you'd run through a brick wall if he asked you to. 215415 >> Went through many presidents but this one I can say is the best president we've ever had and ever will have, I believe. JONI ERNST 215434 ERNST>> Hello, everyone, and thank you for inviting me into your home this evening. It's truly a privilege. My name is Joni Ersnt. I was raised on a small family farm here in Iowa where I learned the importance of faith, hard work, and service. I worked my way through college, then dedicated my life to serving my country, as a local official, a battalion commander in the military, and as a U.S. Senator. Service, it's more than a word to me. It's a mission, a way of life. It's what brought me to cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2008 when I was in the National Guard. 215515 We saw historic floods that swept through the communities. We lent a helping hand to our fellow Iowans who were literally under water. We thought we had seen the worst, but 12 years later, these same communities have faced an even more devastating disaster, the recent Derecho storm. If you don't live in Iowa, you may not have heard much about it at first. While reporters here in the state were in the trenches covering the equivalent of a category 2 hurricane, most of the national media looked the other way. 215552 To them, Iowa is still just flyover country. Houses, farms were destroyed. About one third of our crops here were damaged. In some cases, these storms wiped out a lifetime of work. And yet, Iowa farmers didn't hesitate to grab their chainsaws and check on their neighbors. Our farmers live every day with that sense of service. The stewards of the land. The ones who feed and fuel the world. 215623 President trump quickly signed an emergency declaration for Iowa to provide relief. And of course when president trump came to Cedar Rapids, the national media finally did too. For years I've worked closely with the president for farmers in Iowa and across the country. We scrapped Obama and Biden's punishing waters of the United States rule which would have regulated about 97% of land in Iowa. 215652 In some cases, even puddles. It would have been a nightmare for farmers. The President delivered on major trade deals with Japan, and the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement. And he implemented the sale of E-15 fuel, year-round. That means more choices for you at the pump, and more jobs for farmers in the heartland. This is something the Obama-Biden administration failed to do in eight years. In fact, I can't recall an administration more hostile to farmers than Obama-Biden, unless you count the Biden-Harris ticket. 215731 The democratic party of Joe Biden is pushing this so-called green new deal. If given power, they would essentially ban animal agriculture and eliminate gas-powered cars. It would destroy the agriculture industry, not just here in Iowa, but throughout the country . When the pandemic hit president trump heard us and our call for assistance for our farmers. 215755 Knowing we have an ally in the white house is important. Folks, this election is a choice between two very different paths. Freedom, prosperity, and economic growth under a trump-pence administration. Or the biden-harris path, paved by liberal, coastal elites and radical environmentalists. And America, where farmers are punished, jobs are destroyed, and taxes crush the middle class. 215827 That is our choice and it's a clear one. Thank you. And god bless. BURGESS OWENS 215840 OWENS>> Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Burgess Owens. Shackled in the belly of a slave ship, an 8-year-old boy named (?) Burgess came to America to be sold on an auction block. By the grace of god and the courage of slaves who believed in freedom, (?) escaped through the underground railroad and settled in the great state of Texas. He wanted to become a successful entrepreneur. He built his community's first church, first elementary school, and purchased 102 acres of farmland which he paid off in two years. 215911 I'm here today, a candidate for Congress, because my great, great grandfather Salas Burgess. I was raised in the South during the days of Jim Crow and the KKK. He went through the challenges of segregation. We were taught that anything is possible in America. When I was 22 years old, I thought all my dreams would come true when I was drafted by the New York Jets. 10 years later, with a pro-Bowl nod and a Super Bowl championship under my belt, I left the NFL to start a business. 215941 I thought I could never fail, but years later, I did and I lost everything. As I moved my family of 6 into a one-bedroom, basement apartment in Brooklyn, New York, I had a choice to make: feel sorry for myself or get to work. I worked as a chimney sweep during the day and a security guard at night. It was humbling to be recognized cleaning a chimney by someone who has cheered me as an NFL fan but those hard days would pay off. Eventually, I started a career -- a rewarding career in the corporate world. 220013 We live in a country where we are encouraged to dream big. Second chances are at the core of our American DNA. We don't hear that same message from Nancy Pelosi's congress, career politicians, elitists and even a former bartender who want us to believe it's impossible. They want us to believe what I did, what my great-great grandfather did is impossible for ordinary americans. As patriots, we know better. This November we stand at a crossroads. Mobs torch our cities while popular members of congress promotes the same socialism that my father fought against in world war II. We have a democratic candidate for president who says that I'm not black if I don't vote for him. 220055 Now, more than ever, we need leaders who stand by their principles and won't compromise their values for political opportunities. Now, more than ever, we need leaders who will stand up to the lawlessness supported by the radical left. This November, we have an opportunity to reject the mob mentality, and once again be the America that my great-great grandfather believed in. During the Trump administration, business ownership among blacks, hispanics, and females have reached all time highs. 220125 Those same groups enjoyed record low unemployment and unprecedented prosperity. And we're just getting started. I ran for congress because we don't need more career politicians. We need a few more chimney sweeps. We need more leaders like president Trump, who understands the freedoms that make up the fabric of America. My fellow Americans, specifically my Democrat and Independent friends, it is now time for us to unite and put aside partisan barriers. Help us win back the House, keep the Senate, and give our president 4 more years. 220201 And I promise you, we will make you proud. Thank you, and God bless the United States of America. [RNC VIDEO] 220216 VO>> Standing guard over Baltimore Harbor is the remains of an Earthen star. A relic of time passed. It recalls a time when the spirit of liberty stirred in men of renown, who stood in the gap against the most powerful force in the world. 27 hours. One thousand men, low on ammunition, firing scrap metal. The battle raged. 220242 Insurmountable odds. A darkness fell upon this new nation. In the midst of the fight, the heroes of Fort McHenry were unmoved. The light of dawn overcame the darkness. The gallant flag hoisted above Fort McHenry, torn and battered, stood, victoriously observing a dejected enemy slowly retreating into the rising sun, inspiring the anthem of our nation. 220313 The spirit of Liberty, not to be denied. The Earthen star, Fort McHenry, a reminder of those brave patriots who having done all, stood and prevailed. It is why we stand today, honoring past present and future generations of freedom loving Americans when we hear the anthem and raise the star spangled banner. LARA TRUMP 220347 LARA TRUMP>> Good evening, America. I'm Lara Trump, daughter of Bob and Linda (?), sister to Kyle, mother to Luke and Carolina and the daughter-in-law of our 45th president, Donald J. Trump. But tonight I come to you simply as an American. My life began like many in our country. I grew up in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. My parents were small business owners and worked hard to make sure that my brother and I had everything we needed but not everything we wanted. 220419 My parents raised me to believe that in America I could achieve anything with hard work and determination. The opportunities available to me were limited only by the size of my ambition. That I should dream big and I did. Those very dreams are what led me to New York City. I heard the adage, if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere and I intended to do just that. Never in a million years did I think I would be on this stage tonight and certainly never thought I would end up with the last name "Trump." 220453 My seventh grade English teacher, Mrs. B, used to tell us, believe none of what you hear, half of what you read, and only what you're there to witness first hand. The meaning of those words never fully weighed on me until I met my husband and the Trump family. Any preconceived notion I had of this family disappeared immediately. They were warm and caring. They were hard workers. And they were down to Earth. They reminded me of my own family. They made me feel like I was home. Walking the halls of the Trump organization, I saw the same family environment. 220530 I also saw the countless women executives who thrived there year after year. Gender didn't matter. What mattered was the ability to get the job done. I learned this directly when, in 2016, my father-in-law asked me to help him win my cherished home state and my daughter's namesake, North Carolina. Though I had no political experience, he believed in me. He knew I was capable even if I didn't. 220558 So it didn't surprise me when president Donald Trump appointed so many women to senior level positions in his administration -- Secretary of the United Nations, secretary of the air force, the first female CIA director, the first black female director of the fish and wildlife service and countless ambassadors just to name a few. Under President Trump's leadership, women's unemployment hit the lowest level since World War II. 220624 4.3 million new jobs have been created for women. In 2019 alone, women took over 70% of all new jobs. Female small business ownership remains at an all-time high, and 600,000 women have been lifted out of poverty, all since President Trump took office. 220643 He didn't do these things to gain a vote or check a box. He did them because they're the right things to do. 100 years ago today, the 19th amendment was ratified, granting the right to vote to every American woman. And since that day, incredible strides have been made by women in America. From Amelia Erhardt to Rosa parks and Sally Ride, women shaped our history and are part of what has made our country the most exceptional nation in the world. 220714 I often think back to my 24-year-old self driving alone in my car from North Carolina to New York City. And I think about what I'd tell myself now as we head towards the most critical election in modern history. This is not just a choice between Republican and Democrat or left and right. This is an election that will decide if we keep America America or if we head down an uncharted frightening path to socialism. 220743 Abraham Lincoln once famously said, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." While those words were spoken over 150 years ago, never have they been more relevant. Will we choose the right path and maintain the unique freedoms and boundless opportunities that make this country the greatest in the history of the world? 220811 Will we remain the beacon of hope for those around the world fighting oppression, communism, and tyranny? The choice is ours. I know the promise of America, because I've lived it. Not just as a member of the Trump family, but as a woman who knows what it's like to work in blue collar jobs, to serve customers for tips, and to aspire to rise. When I look at my son Luke and my daughter Carolina, I wonder, what sort of country will I be leaving for them, for our future generations? 220843 In recent months, we've seen weak, spineless politicians seek control of our great American cities to violent mobs. Defund the police is the rallying cry for the new radical Democrat party. 220857 Joe Biden will not do what it takes to maintain order, to keep our children safe in our neighborhoods and in their schools, to restore our American way of life. We cannot dare to dream our biggest dreams for ourselves or for our children while consumed by worry about the safety of our families. President Trump is the law and order president, from our borders to our backyards. President Trump will keep America safe. President Trump will keep America prosperous. 220927 President Trump will keep America America. If you're watching tonight and wrestling with your vote on November 3, I implore you, tune out the distorted news and bias commentary and hear it straight from someone who knows. I wasn't born a trump. I'm from the south, I was raised a Carolina girl. I went to public schools and worked my way through a state university. Mrs. B from my seventh grade English class was right. 220957 What I learned about our president is different than what you might have heard. I learned that he's a good man. That he loves his family. That he didn't need this job. That no one on Earth works harder for the American people. That he's willing to fight for his beliefs and for the people and the country that he loves. 221018 He's a person of conviction. He's a fighter and will never stop fighting for America. He will uphold our values. He will preserve our families and he will build upon the great American edict that our union will never be perfect until opportunity is equal for all, including and especially for women. 221040 Our 40th president, Ronald Reagan, said it best: "The dreams of people may differ, but everybody wants their dreams to come true." And America, above all places, gives us the freedom to do that. It's up to us to keep this country a place where no dream is out of reach for our children and generations beyond. To my father-in-law, thank you for believing in me. 221105 Thank you for bravely leading this country and thank you for continuing to fight every day for America. May god bless and protect the Gulf states in the path of the hurricane. May god bless our troops, and may god continue to bless this incredible country. SAM VIGIL 221140 VIGIL>> Good evening. My name is Sam Vigil. There is a hole in my heart since my beloved Jackie was taken from me. This is her story. There were two things that Jackie loved to do every day. One was to go to the gym and tweet out bible verses and prayers to her friends. On November 19, the tweets stopped. That day started out like any other day. She left for the gym early in the morning. I heard the garage door open. Seconds later, I heard the car horn. 221212 I went outside to see if she had forgotten something. What I saw was a jeep blocking her car in the driveway. I noticed the bullet hole in Jackie's window. I saw someone jumping into the jeep and speeding away. Jackie had just been shot and killed in cold blood. We think this was a carjacking gone wrong. Very wrong. Every time I open the garage door or stand in the driveway, I hear that horn. I see her slumped in the seat. 221243 Where -- when I go to bed at night, that sound and image haunt me. That is my life sentence. It's a sentence being served by too many families left behind by senseless killings. Albuquerque, where I live, is one of the most violent cities in the country. 221303 Fewer than 50% of homicides are solved. It is a sad irony that Jackie immigrated to the U.S. for a better life than her native Columbia only to be gunned down in her own driveway. For eight months, there were no arrests no leads in connection with Jackie's murder. The Albuquerque police were overwhelmed. They needed help. Help arrived when president trump launched operation legend in July of this year. Almost immediately the FBI took over Jackie's case. In a matter of days, they arrested four people. 221341 The fifth suspect killer was arrested in Texas on unrelated charges. He is an illegal immigrant with a long criminal record. He had been deported in September and had come back in October to terrorize our community. I am extremely grateful to President Trump and the FBI for their efforts to deliver justice for Jackie and all the other innocent victims of violent crime. I'm honored to support the president because he is supporting us. I know he will never stop fighting for justice, for law and order. for peace, security, and our communities. CLARENCE HENDERSON 211424 CLARENCE HENDERSON>> Greetings, my fellow Americans. I am Clarence Henderson. There's been movements that have changed the course of history. Among the most extraordinary was the civil rights movement. 60 years ago, segregation was legal and enforced. The simple act of sitting at a lunch counter could lead to physical harm, jail time or worse. 221449 I know from personal experience. Walking into Woolworth's Department Store on Fairway and Second, 1960, I knew it was unlike any day I'd experienced before. My friends had been denied service the day before because of the color of their skin. We knew it wasn't right. But when we went back the next day, I didn't know whether I was going to come out in a vertical or prone position, in handcuffs or on a stretcher or even in a body bag. 221524 By sitting down to order a cup of coffee, we challenged injustice. We knew it was necessary, but we didn't know what would happen. We faced down the KKK. We were cursed at and called all kinds of names. They threatened to kill us and some of us were arrested, but it was worth it. 221548 Our actions inspired similar protests throughout the south against racial injustice. And in the end, segregation was abolished and our country moved a step closer to true equality for all. That's what actual peaceful protest can accomplish. America isn't perfect. We're always improving. But the great thing about this country is that it's not where you come from. It's where you're going. 221616 I was born on what some would call the wrong side of the tracks. I don't even have a birth certificate. I never attended an integrated school. And I'm the only one out of my immediate family who graduated from college, an hbcu. I'm a military veteran and a civil rights activist. And you know what else? I'm a Republican. And I support Donald Trump. If that sounds strange, you don't know your history. It was a Republican party that passed the 13th amendment, abolishing slavery. 221654 It was the Republican Party that passed the 14th Amendment, giving Black men citizenship. It was the Republican party that passed the 15th amendment, giving Black men the right to vote. Freedom of thought is a powerful thing. There are Americans, voters all over the country who media is trying to convince to conform to the same old Democratic talking points. You know what that will get you? The same old results. Joe Biden had the audacity to say if you don't vote for him, you ain't Black. Well, to that I say: if you do vote for Biden, you don't know history. 221733 Donald Trump is not a politician. He's a leader. Politicians are a dime a dozen. Leaders are priceless. The record funding Trump gave HBCUs is priceless, too. So are the record number of jobs he created for the black community and the investment he drove into our neighborhoods with tax incentives and opportunity Zones. And so are the lives he restored by passing criminal justice reform where 91% of the inmates released are black. 221807 These achievements demonstrate that Donald Trump truly cares about black lives. His policies show his heart. He's done more for black Americans in four years than Joe Biden has done in 50. Donald Trump is offering real and lasting change, an unprecedented opportunity to rise. A country that embraces the spirit of the civil rights movement of the 60s. 221835 A place where people are judged by the content of their character, their talents and abilities, not by the color of their skin. This is the America I was fighting for 60 years ago. this is the America Donald Trump is fighting for today. Let's all join in this fight for re-electing president trump on November 3. Thank you. RICHARD GRENELL 221904 GRENELL>> During the presidential debates four years ago, one outsider stood alone and said in public what most Americans thought in private. It was 14 years after the start of the war in Afghanistan and 12 years after the invasion of Iraq, where thousands of American troops had died and trillions in taxpayer dollars had been spent. And yet no candidate could bring themselves to admit that something had gone badly wrong with American foreign policy. 221935 But the American voter, the American soldier and the American taxpayer had always been let down. Except for one, Donald Trump. He called America's endless wars what they were -- a disaster. The media was shocked because Donald Trump was running as a Republican. And yet, he said out loud what we all knew, that American foreign policy was failing to make Americans safer. 222009 After the end of the cold war, Democrats and Republicans in Washington bought into the illusion that the whole world would start to resemble America, and so they started to pursue unlimited globalization. They welcomed China into the World Trade Organization. They engaged in nation building in Afghanistan, and tried to export democracy to Iraq. 222034 They signed a nuclear deal with Iran and a global climate agreement in Paris. But they didn't ground any of it in the interests of the average American. So for decades while Washington politicians built a global system, American wages stagnated. Our great cities and industries were hollowed out. Entire communities were devastated. 222059 And our manufacturing plants were shipped off to China. That's what happened when Washington stopped being the capitol of the United States and started being the capitol of the world. As the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, I had a front row seat to Donald Trump's America first foreign policy. I wish American could see how president trump negotiates on their behalf. 222126 I've watched President Trump charm the chancellor of Germany while insisting that Germany pay its NATO obligations. I was proud to witness President Trump say to foreign leaders, I don't blame you for wanting America to pay for your security. I actually respect you for out- negotiating the presidents before me. But it stops with me. I won't let the American taxpayer be taken advantage of. Donald Trump's administration has always made clear that our priority is the American people's security. 222203 That's the job of all leaders, to put their people first. And we've seen how this strategy has succeeded. In four short years, Donald Trump has led even some Washington Democrats to agree on the Chinese threat, on trade deals that benefit America first, on alliances that share responsibility. In four years, Donald Trump didn't start any new wars. He brought troops home. 222231 He rebuilt the military and signed peace deals that make Americans safer. The Washington elites want you to think this kind of foreign policy is immoral. And so they call it nationalist. That tells you all you need to know. The DC crowd thinks when they call Donald trump a nationalist, they're insulting him. As if the American president isn't supposed to base foreign policy on America's national interests. 222301 A return to the Biden way of thinking means America gives the radical terrorist regime in Tehran a planeload of cash in the middle of the night. Well you see, president trump also sent an aircraft in the middle of the night to deal with Iran. But that plane was on a different mission. An air strike to take out the head of Iran's terror machine who plotted the deaths of Americans. 222327 But we also must be clear that when those who seek freedom take tremendous personal risk in places like Hong Kong, Tehran or Minsk there's no doubt who president trump's administration supports. We will always stand with the people the who fight for their god-given freedoms. Don't be fooled. The Washington establishment is trying to sell you on their candidate. 222358 Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972, 48 years ago. Well, it's actually the typical Washington story. Just this year, 22 Democrats ran for President. They rejected all of the outsiders and nominated the ultimate Washington insider, someone that they had to pull out of retirement. 222424 Every time Joe Biden offers a new idea, you should ask yourself: why didn't he try that over the last 48 years? Today, the Democrats blame a global pandemic that started in China on President Trump, and they still blame Russia for Hillary Clinton's loss in 19-- in 2016. As acting director of national intelligence, I saw the Democrats' entire case for Russian collusion. 222451 And what I saw made me sick to my stomach. The Obama-Biden administration secretly launched a surveillance operation on the Trump campaign and silenced the many brave intelligence officials who spoke up against it. They presented bogus information as facts. They lied to judges, then they classified anything that undermined their case. And after Donald Trump won the election, when they should have continued the American tradition of helping the President-Elect transition into the White House, they tried instead to undercut him even more. 222533 Former vice president Joe Biden asked intelligence officials to uncover the hidden information on President Trump's incoming national security adviser three weeks before the inauguration. That's the Democrats. Between surveillance, classifications, leaks and puppet candidates, they never want the American people to know who is actually calling the shots. 222557 But with Donald Trump, you always know exactly who is in charge. Because the answer is you. You're in charge. Not lobbyists, not special interests. Not warmongers or China sympathizers or globalization fanatics. With Donald Trump and Mike Pence in the white house, the boss is the American people. President Trump rightly calls his foreign policy "America first." 222630 America first does not advance the interests of one group of Americans at the expense of another. It has no bias about red or blue, educated or not educated, urban or rural. America first is simply the belief that politicians should focus on the equality and dignity of every American. And that this duty is fulfilled by promoting the safety and wealth of the American people above all else. That's America first. That's the trump doctrine and that, my friends, is four more years. [RNC VIDEO] 222724 VO>> By dawn's early light, millions of Americans give thanks for this land, our liberties and those who defend it. That same pride inspired the words of our National Anthem, penned here as the smoke of battle lifted over two centuries ago. When those American soldiers bravely fought and died, repelling the British onslaught, they did so not only for our people which that flag represented, but for our principles for which the flag stood. 222754 Our god-given freedoms, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, equality under the law, government by the people. These are the threads that bind us together as Americans. For we're not a nation born of blood, but of belief. 222813 And even though that old flag has sometimes been battered and beaten, faded and forgotten, fired upon and set ablaze, there are heroes throughout our history who have picked up those tattered strands, mended them, and raised our flag anew. 222830 Just as the soldiers at Fort McHenry fought in defense of the beliefs that bind us today, there are new leaders who have devoted their life to do the same. 222846 MIKE PENCE (ON VIDEO)>> Greetings across the amber waves of grain, this is Mike pence. VO>> Across Indiana highways and homes, his voice warmly welcomed hoosiers each morning. Mike Pence filled the radio waves with conservative commentary, guarding our American ideals. But much like the man who inspired him, Mike didn't grow up a Republican. 222907 MIKE PENCE (VO)>> As president Reagan said, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. >> His grandfather was a hard-working Irish immigrant who drove a bus to provide for his family. His father served our nation bravely in the Korean war and earned a bronze star. Mike was the third of six children raised here in Columbus, Indiana, with a cornfield in his backyard. 222930 MIKE PENCE (ON VIDEO)>> The foundation of America is freedom, and the foundation of freedom is faith. VO>> It was in this small Indiana town, his foundation of faith in Jesus Christ was laid. And from that conviction, sprung his love of people and service to others. It was at a church service where Mike met the love of his life, Karen. They married and have three children, Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey. MIKE PENCE (ON VIDEO)>> I'm a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order. 223000 VO>> Mike became the President of Free-Market Think Tank, the host of a statewide conservative radio show, and then a Congressman. In Washington, Mike quickly became known as a foremost defender of freedom. He led conservatives in the fight to protect our time-honored values of family, faith, life, liberty, and limited government. 223023 MIKE PENCE (ON VIDEO)>> Our nation's strength begins at homes, because strong families make a strong America. VO>> Mike earned the trust of the people of his state, and became the 50th governor of Indiana. He delivered the largest state tax cut in Indiana history, expanded school choice, led the country in manufacturing, and helped more hoosiers get to work than ever before, but he wasn't through. 223045 DAVID MUIR (ON VIDEO)>> ABC news has learned that Donald Trump will choose Indiana governor Mike pence to be his running mate. TRUMP (ON VIDEO)>> I would like to introduce a man who I truly believe will be the next vice president of the United States. Governor Mike pence. 223102 VO>> As our vice president, Mike Pence has held tightly to those threads of freedom, woven through our history. Leading with those principles alongside president trump, our nation experienced prosperity like never before. TRUMP (ON VIDEO)>> He is solid as a rock. He's been a fantastic vice president. 223120 VO>> And now in these uncertain days, we are equipped to overcome. In times of trouble, some call to retreat from those ideals. But Americans throughout history have lifted them in triumph, hope, and resilience. Mike pence knows those stars and stripes do not merely represent who we are, but more importantly, what we can be. 223147 As the sun rises again on America, we lift our eyes to those lofty truths, to guide our country and every one of us to greater heights. In this land of the free and home of the brave. Vice president Mike pence. 223227 [MIKE AND KAREN PENCE ENTER] 223227 >> Please welcome the vice president of the United States, Mike Pence. Accompanied by the second lady, Mrs. Karen Pence. MIKE PENCE 223327 [CROWD CHANTS "FOUR MORE YEARS] 223336 MIKE PENE>> Good evening, America. It's an honor to speak to you tonight from the hallowed grounds of Fort McHenry. The site of the very battle that inspired the words of our national anthem. Those words have inspired this land of heroes in every generation since. It was on this site 206 years ago when our young republic heroically withstood a ferocious naval bombardment from the most powerful empire on Earth. 223409 They came to crush our revolution, to divide our nation, and to end the American experiment. The heroes who held this fort took their stand for life, liberty, freedom and the American flag, and those ideals have defined our nation. 223434 But they were hardly ever mentioned at last week's Democratic national convention. Instead Democrats spent four days attacking America. Joe Biden said that we were living through a season of darkness. But as president trump said, where Joe Biden sees American darkness, we see American greatness. 223512 In these challenging times, our country needs a president who believes in America, who believes in the boundless capacity of the American people, to meet any challenge, defeat any foe, and defend the freedoms we hold dear. America needs four more years of president Donald Trump in the white house. 223540 Before I go forward, allow me to say a word to the families and communities in the path of Hurricane Laura. Our prayers are with you tonight, and our administration is working closely with authorities in the states that will be impacted. FEMA has mobilized resources and supplies for those in harm's way. This is a serious storm and we urge all of those in the affected areas to heed state and local authorities, stay safe and know that we'll be with you every step of the way, to support, rescue, respond, and recover in the days and weeks ahead. 223618 That's what Americans do. [ Applause ] Four years ago I answered the call to join this ticket because I knew that Donald Trump had the leadership and the vision to make America great again. And for the last four years I've watched this president endure unrelenting attacks but get up every day and fight to keep the promises that he made to the American people. 223652 So, with gratitude for the confidence president Donald Trump has placed in me, the support of our Republican party and the grace of god, I humbly accept your nomination to run and serve as Vice President of the United States. [applause/cheers] 223737 [crowd chants "FOUR MORE YEARS] 223740 Serving the American people in this office has been a journey I never expected. It's a journey that would not have been possible without the support of my family, beginning with my wonderful wife Karen. [ Applause ] 223801 She's a life-long school teacher, an incredible mother to our 3 children. And she's one outstanding second lady of the United States. I'm so proud of you. [ Applause ] And we couldn't be more proud of our three children: Marine Corps captain, Michael J. Pence, and his wife Sara. 223827 Our daughter Charlotte pence Bond, an author and wife to lieutenant Henry Bond who is currently deployed and serving our nation in the United States Navy. [ Applause ] 223845 And our youngest, a recent law school grad, our daughter Audrey and her fiance who like so many other Americans had to delay their wedding this summer. But we can't wait for Dan to be a part of our family. [ Applause ] In addition, my wife and kids, the person who's shaped my life the most is also with us tonight. 223916 My mom, Nancy. [ Applause ] She is the daughter of an irish immigrant, 87 years young. Mom follows politics very closely. And the truth be told, sometimes I think I'm actually her second favorite candidate on the trump/pence ticket. 223947 Thank you, Mom. I love you. Over the past 4 years, I've had the privilege to work closely with our President. I've seen him when the cameras are off. Americans see President Trump is lots if different ways. But there's not doubt how President Trump sees America. 224012 He sees America for what it is: a nation that has done more good in this world than any other, a nation that deserves far more gratitude than grievance. And if you want a president who falls silent when our heritage is demeaned or insulted, he's not your man. [ Applause ] 224041 Now we came by very different routes to this partnership, and some people think we're a little bit different. But you know, I've learned a few things watching him. Watching him deal with all that we've been through over the past four years. He does things in his own way, on his own terms. 224103 Not much gets past him, and when he has an opinion, he's liable to share it. [laughter] He's certainly kept things interesting. But more importantly, president Donald Trump has kept his word to the American people. [ Applause ] 224130 In a city known for talkers, President Trump is a doer. And few presidents have brought more Independence, energy or determination to that office. Four years ago, we inherited a military hollowed out by devastating budget cuts, an economy struggling to break out of the slowest recovery since the great depression. ISIS controlled a land mass twice the size of Pennsylvania, and we witnessed a steady assault on our most cherished values -- freedom of religion and the right to life. That's when president Donald Trump stepped in. 224211 And from day one, he kept his word. We rebuilt our military. [ Applause ] This president signed the largest increase in our national defense since the days of Ronald Reagan and created the first new branch of our armed forces in 70 years, the United States space force. [ Cheers and applause ] 224241 And with that renewed energy, we also returned American astronauts to space on an American rocket for the first time in nearly 10 years. And after years of scandal that robbed our veterans of the care that you earned in the uniform of the United States, president trump kept his word again. We reformed the va and veterans choice is now available for every veteran in America. [ Applause ] 224319 Our armed forces and our veterans fill this land of heroes, and many join us tonight in this historic fort. Tonight, we have among us four recipients of the medal of honor, [ Applause ] six recipients of the purple heart, [ Applause ] a gold star mother of a gallant Navy S.E.A.L. [ Applause ] and wounded warriors from Soldiers Strong, a group that serves our injured veterans every day. 224401 We are honored by your presence and we thank you for your service. [ Applause ] 224429 With heroes just like these, we defend this nation every day. And under this commander in chief, we've taken the fight to radical islamic terrorists on our terms on their soil. Last year, American armed forces took the last inch of ISIS territory, crushed their caliphate and took down their leader without one American causality. [ Applause ] 224457 And I was there when president trump gave the order to take out the world's most dangerous terrorist, Iran's top general will never harm another American because qassem soleimani is gone. [ Cheers and applause ] 224518 My fellow Americans, you deserve to know, Joe Biden criticized President Trump following those decisions, decisions to rid the world of two terrorist leaders. But it's not surprising, because history records that Joe Biden even opposed the operation that took down Osama bin Laden. It's no wonder that the secretary of the defense under the Obama/Biden administration once said that Joe Biden has been, and I quote, "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." 224602 So we've stood up to our enemies and we've stood with our allies, like when President Trump kept his word and moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem, [cheers/applause] the capital of the state of Israel, setting the stage for the first Arab country to recognize Israel in 26 years. [ Applause ] 224628 Closer to home, we appointed more than 200 conservative judges to our federal courts. We supported the right to life and all the god given liberties enshrined in our constitution, including the second amendment, right to keep and bear arms. [applause] And when it came to the economy, President Trump kept his word and then some. We passed the largest tax cut and reform in American history. 224655 We rolled back more federal red tape than any administration ever had. We unleashed American energy and fought for free and fair trade. And in our first three years, businesses large and small created more than 7 million good-paying jobs, including 500,000 manufacturing jobs all across America. [ Applause ] 224722 Our country became a net exporter of energy for the first time in 70 years. Unemployment rates for African-Americans and hispanic Americans hit the lowest level ever recorded. 224733 And on this 100th anniversary of the women's right to vote, I'm proud to report that under President Donald Trump, we achieved the lowest unemployment rate for women in 65 years. [ Applause ] And more Americans working than ever before. In our first three years, we built the greatest economy in the world. We made America great again. [ Applause ] 224807 And then, the coronavirus struck from China. Before the first case of the coronavirus spread within the United States, the President took unprecedented action and suspended all travel from China, the second largest economy in the world. Now, that action saved untold American lives, and I can tell you firsthand, it bought us invaluable time to launch the greatest national mobilization since World War II. 224841 President Trump marshalled the full resources of our federal government from the outset. He directed us to forge a seamless partnership with governors across America, in both political parties. We partnered with private industry to reinvent testing and produce supplies that we -- that were distributed to hospitals around the land. 224905 Today we're conducting more than 800,000 tests a day and we have coordinated the delivery of billions of pieces of personal protective equipment for our amazing doctors, nurses and health care workers. [ Applause ] We saw to the manufacture of 100,000 ventilators in 100 days and no one who required a ventilator was ever denied a ventilator in the United States. [ Applause ] 224945 We built hospitals, surged military medical personnel, and enacted an economic rescue package that saved 50 million American jobs. And as we speak, we're developing a growing number of treatments known as therapeutics, including convalescent plasma that are saving lives all across America. Now, last week, Joe Biden said that no miracle is coming. 225015 Well, what Joe doesn't seem to understand is that America is a nation of miracles. [ Applause ] And I'm proud to report that we're on track to have the world's first safe, effective coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year. [ Applause ] 225042 After all the sacrifice in this year like no other, all the hardship, we're finding our way forward again. But tonight, our hearts are with all of the families who have lost loved ones and have family members still struggling with serious illness. In this country, we mourn with those who mourn, we grieve with those who grieve. And this night, I know that millions of Americans will pause and pray for god's comfort for each of you. 225123 You know, our country doesn't get through such a time unless its people find strength within. The response of doctors, nurses, first responders, farmers, factory workers, truckers and everyday Americans who put the health and safety of their neighbors first has been nothing short of heroic. [ Applause ] 225154 Veronica Saez put on her scrubs every day, day in and day out went to work in one of New York City's busiest hospitals. She stayed on the job, put in the long hours until it was done and then got back in her neighborhood and helped neighbors and friends struggling. Her brother William is a New York City firefighter and they're both emblematic of heroes all across this country. 225231 They're with us tonight, and I say to them and to all of you: you have earned the admiration of the American people, and we will always be grateful for your service and care. [applause] 225309 Thanks to the courage and compassion of the American people, we're s