Sen. Bill Frist Revives Stem Cell Bill

06/29/2006

WASHINGTON (AP) - Urged anew by Nancy Reagan, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Thursday revived a bill to expand funding for embryonic stem cell research after conservatives who had blocked it withdrew their objections.

“It’s my intention now that we’ve gotten over this first hurdle that we will (vote on the bill) in the not too distant future,” Frist said as he brought the three-bill package to the floor.

“We’ll do this before we get out of here for the October break?” asked Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

“We will,” replied Frist, R-Tenn.

The announcement marked a major advance for a bill - one supported by about 70 percent of Americans - that had been stalled in the Senate since the House passed it in May 2005. Frist was still untangling objections from at least two senators that blocked the bill up to a few moments before he brought the package to the floor, according to officials close to the talks who requested anonymity because they had not been authorized to speak publicly.

The bill is expected to pass. But for all the progress, President Bush’s veto threat remained, said White House spokesman Ken Lisaius.

The bill would permit the government to pay for human embryonic stem cell research, a science that carries promise in the hunt for cures to diseases that afflict millions of people.

Social conservatives liken the research to abortion because the process of extracting stem cells from a days-old embryo results in its death. Bush, who believes the practice is immoral, has threatened to veto the legislation.

Two officials close to the developments said Reagan, the former first lady whose behind-the-scenes advocacy helped the bill win House passage, spoke with Frist last week and urged him to advance it.

Her husband, former President Ronald Reagan, died in 2004 after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for more than a decade. Some scientists say stem cell research could help relieve the effects of Alzheimer’s or possibly lead to a cure.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has for months intended to block the bills Frist brought forward, but talks with Frist on Thursday persuaded him to lift his objection for now, several Republican and Democratic officials said.

Even as Frist prepared to bring the package to the floor, an objection from at least one senator threatened to block it, the officials said. They would not identify the senator.

A heart transplant surgeon, Frist stunned many in his party last year by announcing his support for the bill and promising a vote on it before the 109th Congress expires at the end of this year.