[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 24, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H3795-H3809]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STEM CELL THERAPEUTIC AND RESEARCH ACT OF 2005
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 2520) to provide for the collection and maintenance
of human cord blood stem cells for the treatment of patients and
research, and to amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize the
C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program.
The Clerk read as follows:
H.R. 2520
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Stem Cell Therapeutic and
Research Act of 2005''.
SEC. 2. CORD BLOOD INVENTORY.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services
shall enter into one-time contracts with qualified cord blood
stem cell banks to assist in the collection and maintenance
of 150,000 units of high-quality human cord blood to be made
available for transplantation through the C.W. Bill Young
Cell Transplantation Program and to carry out the
requirements of subsection (b).
(b) Requirements.--The Secretary shall require each
recipient of a contract under this section--
(1) to acquire, tissue-type, test, cryopreserve, and store
donated units of human cord blood acquired with the informed
consent of the donor in a manner that complies with
applicable Federal and State regulations;
(2) to make cord blood units that are collected pursuant to
this section or otherwise and meet all applicable Federal
standards available to transplant centers for stem cell
transplantation;
(3) to make cord blood units that are collected, but not
appropriate for clinical use, available for peer-reviewed
research;
(4) to submit data in a standardized format, as required by
the Secretary, for the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation
Program; and
(5) to submit data for inclusion in the stem cell
therapeutic outcomes database maintained under section 379A
of the Public Health Service Act, as amended by this Act.
(c) Application.--To seek to enter into a contract under
this section, a qualified cord blood stem cell bank shall
submit an application to the Secretary at such time, in such
manner, and containing such information as the Secretary may
reasonably require. At a minimum, an application for a
contract under this section shall include an assurance that
the applicant--
(1) will participate in the C.W. Bill Young Cell
Transplantation Program for a period of at least 10 years;
and
(2) in the event of abandonment of this activity prior to
the expiration of such period, will transfer the units
collected pursuant to this section to another qualified cord
blood stem cell bank approved by the Secretary to ensure
continued availability of cord blood units.
(d) Duration of Contracts.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary may not enter into any
contract under this section for a period that--
(A) exceeds 3 years; or
(B) ends after September 30, 2010.
(2) Extensions.--Subject to paragraph (1)(B), the Secretary
may extend the period of a contract under this section to
exceed a period of 3 years if--
(A) the Secretary finds that 150,000 units of high-quality
human cord blood have not yet been collected pursuant to this
section; and
(B) the Secretary does not receive an application for a
contract under this section from any qualified cord blood
stem cell bank that has not previously entered into a
contract under this section or the Secretary determines that
the outstanding inventory need cannot be met by the one or
more qualified cord blood stem cell banks that have submitted
an application for a contract under this section.
(e) Regulations.--The Secretary may promulgate regulations
to carry out this section.
(f) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation
Program'' means the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation
Program under section 379 of the Public Health Service Act,
as amended by this Act.
(2) The term ``cord blood donor'' means a mother who has
delivered a baby and consents to donate the neonatal blood
remaining in the placenta and umbilical cord after separation
from the newborn baby.
(3) The term ``human cord blood unit'' means the neonatal
blood collected from the placenta and umbilical cord.
[[Page H3796]]
(4) The term ``qualified cord blood stem cell bank'' has
the meaning given to that term in section 379(b) of the
Public Health Service Act, as amended by this Act.
(5) The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of Health
and Human Services.
(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--
(1) Fiscal year 2006.--Any amounts appropriated to the
Secretary for fiscal year 2004 or 2005 for the purpose of
assisting in the collection or maintenance of human cord
blood shall remain available to the Secretary until the end
of fiscal year 2006 for the purpose of carrying out this
section.
(2) Subsequent fiscal years.--There are authorized to be
appropriated to the Secretary $15,000,000 for each of fiscal
years 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 to carry out this section.
Amounts appropriated pursuant to this paragraph shall remain
available for obligation through the end of fiscal year 2010.
SEC. 3. C.W. BILL YOUNG CELL TRANSPLANTATION PROGRAM.
(a) National Program.--Section 379 of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 274k) is amended--
(1) in the section heading, by striking ``NATIONAL
REGISTRY'' and inserting ``NATIONAL PROGRAM'';
(2) in subsection (a)--
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking
``The Secretary shall by contract'' and all that follows
through the end of such matter and inserting ``The Secretary,
acting through the Administrator of the Health Resources and
Services Administration, shall by one or more contracts
establish and maintain a C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation
Program that has the purpose of increasing the number of
transplants for recipients suitably matched to biologically
unrelated donors of bone marrow and cord blood, and that
meets the requirements of this section. The Secretary may
award a separate contract to perform each of the major
functions of the Program described in paragraphs (1) and (2)
of subsection (b) if deemed necessary by the Secretary to
operate an effective and efficient system. The Secretary
shall conduct a separate competition for the initial
establishment of the cord blood functions of the Program. The
Program shall be under the general supervision of the
Secretary. The Secretary shall establish an Advisory Council
to advise, assist, consult with, and make recommendations to
the Secretary on matters related to the activities carried
out by the Program. The members of the Advisory Council shall
be appointed in accordance with the following:'';
(B) in paragraph (1), by striking ``except that'' and all
that follows and inserting ``except that--
``(A) such limitations shall not apply to the Chair of the
Advisory Council (or the Chair-elect) or to the member of the
Advisory Council who most recently served as the Chair; and
``(B) 1 additional consecutive 2-year term may be served by
any member of the Advisory Council who has no employment,
governance, or financial affiliation with any donor center,
recruitment group, transplant center, or cord blood stem cell
bank.'';
(C) by amending paragraph (4) to read as follows:
``(4) The membership of the Advisory Council--
``(A) shall include as voting members a balanced number of
representatives including representatives of marrow donor
centers and marrow transplant centers, representatives of
cord blood stem cell banks and participating birthing
hospitals, recipients of a bone marrow transplant and cord
blood transplants, persons who require such transplants,
family members of such a recipient or family members of a
patient who has requested the assistance of the Program in
searching for an unrelated donor of bone marrow or cord
blood, persons with expertise in blood stem cell
transplantation including cord blood, persons with expertise
in typing, matching, and transplant outcome data analysis,
persons with expertise in the social sciences, and members of
the general public; and
``(B) shall include as nonvoting members representatives
from the Department of Defense Marrow Donor Recruitment and
Research Program operated by the Department of the Navy, the
Division of Transplantation of the Health Resources and
Services Administration, the Food and Drug Administration,
and the National Institutes of Health.''; and
(D) by adding at the end the following:
``(5) Members of the Advisory Council shall be chosen so as
to ensure objectivity and balance and reduce the potential
for conflicts of interest. The Secretary shall establish
bylaws and procedures--
``(A) to prohibit any member of the Advisory Council who
has an employment, governance, or financial affiliation with
a donor center, recruitment group, transplant center, or cord
blood stem cell bank from participating in any decision that
materially affects the center, recruitment group, transplant
center, or cord blood stem cell bank; and
``(B) to limit the number of members of the Advisory
Council with any such affiliation.
``(6) The Secretary, acting through the Advisory Council,
shall submit to the Congress--
``(A) an annual report on the activities carried out under
this section; and
``(B) not later than 6 months after the date of the
enactment of the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of
2005, a report of recommendations on the scientific factors
necessary to define a cord blood unit as a high-quality
unit.'';
(3) by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:
``(b) Functions.--
``(1) Bone marrow functions.--With respect to bone marrow,
the Program shall--
``(A) operate a system for listing, searching, and
facilitating the distribution of bone marrow that is suitably
matched to candidate patients;
``(B) carry out a program for the recruitment of bone
marrow donors in accordance with subsection (c), including
with respect to increasing the representation of racial and
ethnic minority groups (including persons of mixed ancestry)
in the enrollment of the Program;
``(C) maintain and expand medical emergency contingency
response capabilities in concert with Federal programs for
response to threats of use of terrorist or military weapons
that can damage marrow, such as ionizing radiation or
chemical agents containing mustard, so that the capability of
supporting patients with marrow damage from disease can be
used to support casualties with marrow damage;
``(D) carry out informational and educational activities in
accordance with subsection (c);
``(E) at least annually update information to account for
changes in the status of individuals as potential donors of
bone marrow;
``(F) provide for a system of patient advocacy through the
office established under subsection (d);
``(G) provide case management services for any potential
donor of bone marrow to whom the Program has provided a
notice that the potential donor may be suitably matched to a
particular patient (which services shall be provided through
a mechanism other than the system of patient advocacy under
subsection (d)), and conduct surveys of donors and potential
donors to determine the extent of satisfaction with such
services and to identify ways in which the services can be
improved;
``(H) with respect to searches for unrelated donors of bone
marrow that are conducted through the system under
subparagraph (A), collect, analyze, and publish data on the
number and percentage of patients at each of the various
stages of the search process, including data regarding the
furthest stage reached, the number and percentage of patients
who are unable to complete the search process, and the
reasons underlying such circumstances;
``(I) support studies and demonstration and outreach
projects for the purpose of increasing the number of
individuals who are willing to be marrow donors to ensure a
genetically diverse donor pool;
``(J) conduct and support research to improve the
availability, efficiency, safety, and cost of transplants
from unrelated donors and the effectiveness of Program
operations; and
``(K) assist qualified cord blood stem cell banks in the
Program in accordance with paragraph (3).
Subsections (c) through (e) apply with respect to each entity
awarded a contract under this section with respect to bone
marrow.
``(2) Cord blood functions.--With respect to cord blood,
the Program shall--
``(A) operate a system for identifying, matching, and
facilitating the distribution of donated cord blood units
that are suitably matched to candidate patients and meet all
applicable Federal and State regulations (including informed
consent and Food and Drug Administration regulations) from a
qualified cord blood stem cell bank;
``(B) allow transplant physicians, other appropriate health
care professionals, and patients to search by means of
electronic access all available cord blood units listed in
the Program;
``(C) allow transplant physicians and other appropriate
health care professionals to tentatively reserve a cord blood
unit for transplantation;
``(D) support studies and demonstration and outreach
projects for the purpose of increasing cord blood donation to
ensure a genetically diverse collection of cord blood units;
and
``(E) coordinate with the Secretary to carry out
information and educational activities for the purpose of
increasing cord blood donation and promoting the availability
of cord blood units as a transplant option.
``(3) Single point of access.--If the Secretary enters into
a contract with more than one entity to perform the functions
outlined in this subsection, the Secretary shall establish
procedures to ensure that health care professionals and
patients are able to obtain, consistent with the functions
described in paragraphs (1)(A) and (2)(A), cells from adult
donors and cord blood units through a single point of access.
``(4) Definition.--The term `qualified cord blood stem cell
bank' means a cord blood stem cell bank that--
``(A) has obtained all applicable Federal and State
licenses, certifications, registrations (including pursuant
to the regulations of the Food and Drug Administration), and
other authorizations required to operate and maintain a cord
blood stem cell bank;
``(B) has implemented donor screening, cord blood
collection practices, and processing methods intended to
protect the health and safety of donors and transplant
recipients to improve transplant outcomes,
[[Page H3797]]
including with respect to the transmission of potentially
harmful infections and other diseases;
``(C) is accredited by an accreditation body recognized
pursuant to a public process by the Secretary;
``(D) has established a system of strict confidentiality to
protect the identity and privacy of patients and donors in
accordance with existing Federal and State law; and
``(E) has established a system for encouraging donation by
a genetically diverse group of donors.'';
(4) in subsection (c)--
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``The Registry shall
carry out a program for the recruitment'' and inserting
``With respect to bone marrow, the Program shall carry out a
program for the recruitment'';
(B) in paragraph (2)(A)--
(i) in the matter preceding clause (i), by striking the
first sentence and inserting ``In carrying out the program
under paragraph (1), the Program shall carry out
informational and educational activities, in coordination
with organ donation public awareness campaigns operated
through the Department of Health and Human Services, for
purposes of recruiting individuals to serve as donors of bone
marrow and shall test and enroll with the Program potential
donors.''; and
(ii) in clause (ii), by striking ``, including providing
updates''; and
(C) in paragraph (3), by striking ``the availability, as a
potential treatment option, of receiving a transplant of bone
marrow from an unrelated donor'' and inserting ``transplants
from unrelated donors as a treatment option and resources for
identifying and evaluating other therapeutic alternatives'';
(5) in subsection (d)--
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``The Registry shall''
and inserting ``With respect to bone marrow, the Program
shall'';
(B) in paragraph (2)(C), by inserting ``and assist with
information regarding third party payor matters'' after
``ongoing search for a donor'';
(C) in subparagraphs (C), (D), and (E) of paragraph (2), by
striking the term ``subsection (b)(1)'' each place such term
appears and inserting ``subsection (b)(1)(A)'';
(D) in paragraph (2)(F)--
(i) by redesignating clause (v) as clause (vi); and
(ii) by inserting after clause (iv) the following:
``(v) Information concerning issues that patients may face
after a transplant regarding continuity of care and quality
of life.''; and
(E) in paragraph (3)(B), by striking ``Office may'' and
inserting ``Office shall'';
(6) in the matter preceding paragraph (1) in subsection
(e), by striking ``the Secretary shall'' and inserting ``with
respect to bone marrow, the Secretary shall'';
(7) by amending subsection (f) to read as follows:
``(f) Comment Procedures.--The Secretary shall establish
and provide information to the public on procedures under
which the Secretary shall receive and consider comments from
interested persons relating to the manner in which the
Program is carrying out the duties of the Program.'';
(8) by amending subsection (g) to read as follows:
``(g) Consultation.--In developing policies affecting the
Program, the Secretary shall consult with the Advisory
Council, the Department of Defense Marrow Donor Recruitment
and Research Program operated by the Department of the Navy,
and the board of directors of each entity awarded a contract
under this section.'';
(9) in subsection (h)--
(A) by striking ``Application.--'' and inserting
``Contracts.--'';
(B) by striking ``To be eligible'' and inserting the
following:
``(1) Application.--To be eligible''; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(2) Considerations.--In awarding contracts under this
section, the Secretary shall give substantial weight to the
continued safety of donors and patients and other factors
deemed appropriate by the Secretary.''; and
(10) by striking subsection (l).
(b) Stem Cell Therapeutic Outcomes Database.--Section 379A
of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 274l) is amended
to read as follows:
``SEC. 379A. STEM CELL THERAPEUTIC OUTCOMES DATABASE.
``(a) Establishment.--The Secretary shall by contract
establish and maintain a scientific database of information
relating to patients who have been recipients of stem cell
therapeutics product (including bone marrow, cord blood, or
other such product) from a biologically unrelated donor.
``(b) Information.--The outcomes database shall include
information with respect to patients described in subsection
(a), transplant procedures, and such other information as the
Secretary determines to be appropriate, to conduct an ongoing
evaluation of the scientific and clinical status of
transplantation involving recipients of bone marrow from
biologically unrelated donors and recipients of a stem cell
therapeutics product.
``(c) Annual Report on Patient Outcomes.--The Secretary
shall require the entity awarded a contract under this
section to submit to the Secretary an annual report
concerning patient outcomes with respect to each transplant
center, based on data collected and maintained by the entity
pursuant to this section.
``(d) Publicly Available Data.--The outcomes database shall
make relevant scientific information not containing
individually identifiable information available to the public
in the form of summaries and data sets to encourage medical
research and to provide information to transplant programs,
physicians, patients, entities awarded a contract under
section 379 donor registries, and cord blood stem cell
banks.''.
(c) Definitions.--Part I of title III of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 274k et seq.) is amended by inserting
after section 379A the following:
``SEC. 379A-1. DEFINITIONS.
``In this part:
``(1) The term `Advisory Council' means the advisory
council established by the Secretary under section 379(a)(1).
``(2) The term `bone marrow' means the cells found in adult
bone marrow and peripheral blood.
``(3) The term `outcomes database' means the database
established by the Secretary under section 379A.
``(4) The term `Program' means the C.W. Bill Young Cell
Transplantation Program established under section 379.''.
(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--Section 379B of the
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 274m) is amended to read
as follows:
``SEC. 379B. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
``(a) In General.--For the purpose of carrying out this
part, there are authorized to be appropriated $28,000,000 for
fiscal year 2006 and $32,000,000 for each of fiscal years
2007 through 2010.
``(b) Emergency Contingency Response Capabilities.--In
addition to the amounts authorized to be appropriated under
subsection (a), there is authorized to be appropriated
$2,000,000 for the maintenance and expansion of emergency
contingency response capabilities under section
379(b)(1)(C).''.
(e) Conforming Amendments.--Part I of title III of the
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 274k et seq.) is
amended--
(1) in the title heading, by striking ``NATIONAL BONE
MARROW DONOR REGISTRY'' and inserting ``C.W. BILL YOUNG CELL
TRANSPLANTATION PROGRAM''; and
(2) in section 379, as amended by this section--
(A) in subsection (a), by striking the term ``board'' each
place such term appears and inserting ``Advisory Council'';
(B) in subection (c)--
(i) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A) in paragraph
(1), by striking ``Such program'' and inserting ``Such
recruitment program'';
(ii) in paragraph (2), by striking ``program under
paragraph (1)'' and inserting ``recruitment program under
paragraph (1)''; and
(iii) in paragraph (3), by striking ``program under
paragraph (1)'' and inserting ``recruitment program under
paragraph (1)'';
(C) in subsection (d)(2)(E), by striking ``Registry
program'' and inserting ``Program'';
(D) in subsection (e)--
(i) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking
``participating in the program, including the Registry,'' and
inserting ``participating in the Program, including''; and
(ii) in paragraph (6), by striking ``the program'' and
inserting ``the Program''; and
(E) by striking the term ``Registry'' each place such term
appears and inserting ``Program''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Barton) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) each will
control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton).
General Leave
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend
their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material on
the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2520, the Stem Cell
Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005, legislation I have cosponsored
along with the honorable gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), who is
in the Chamber. This would expand the number of stem cell options
available to Americans suffering from life-threatening diseases.
Every year, nearly two-thirds of the approximately 200,000 patients
in need of a bone marrow transplant will not find a marrow donor match
within their families. These patients must rely on the help of
strangers to donate bone marrow for a transplant. To assist these
patients, Congress established the National Bone Marrow Registry to
quickly match donors to patients. Through this program, Congress made a
significant investment to connect patients with a rich source of stem
cells that offer immediate clinical benefits.
With scientific advances, Congress must now make changes to reflect
new
[[Page H3798]]
therapeutic options. Cord blood units have been shown to be a suitable
alternative to adult bone marrow for the treatment of many diseases,
including sickle cell anemia. This is an especially important
advancement for those Americans who have desperately searched for a
marrow donor but could not find a match with even the help of the
National Bone Marrow Registry. As another rich source of stem cells, a
cord blood transplant is another chance at life for many of these
patients.
The bill before us today builds on the critical investments we have
made over the past 2 decades with the National Bone Marrow Registry and
retools this design into a new, more comprehensive stem cell
transplantation program, which will include not only bone marrow but
also cord blood units. Through a competitive contracting process, this
new program will allow transplant doctors and patients to access
information about cord blood units and bone marrow donors, at the same
time, and I want to emphasize at the same time, through a single point
of access. This new program does not create a preference for either
cord blood or bone marrow. Instead, it will provide comprehensive
information about both sources of stem cells to doctors and patients
and allow them to make the most clinically appropriate choice.
I want to recognize the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) at this
time. It was the gentleman from Florida's (Mr. Young) drive, when he
was chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, and his steadfast
support for the idea of a national registry for bone marrow that led to
the program's creation. The gentleman from Florida's (Mr. Young)
lifesaving work is evident again today in the program's new design and
goals. I am pleased that Congress is recognizing his dedication by
naming this new program the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation
Program. I do not see the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) in the
Chamber, but at the appropriate time when he does arrive, I hope that
the body will give him a standing ovation for his work in this area.
The capacity to search for cord blood units through a national
network of cord blood banks will help facilitate cord blood
transplants. We also need to expand the inventory of cord blood units
so that more transplants can occur. The bill before us today authorizes
a new grant program to provide subsidies to cord blood stem cell banks
to expand the inventory of high-quality cord blood units that will be
included in the new, expanded Cell Transplantation Program. I think
that number is 150,000 units, which is a significant increase.
In addition to expanding the number of cord blood units available for
clinical use to save lives today, the bill would also expand the number
of cord blood units available for research. Research on adult stem
cells holds the potential to develop new cures for many diseases, as
well as to expand our knowledge of how human beings develop and the
body works.
I would also like to make a personal aside here. My wife and I are
expecting a child in September, and we are working with the cord blood
people as we speak so that my son, and it is going to be a little boy
and we are going to name him Jack Kevin, that we are going to save his
cord blood so that some day in the future, if he needs it, it will be
available. So in this case I can honestly say, in addition to
sponsoring the bill, I am beginning to practice what I am preaching
today.
It is not enough to connect patients with lifesaving donors. We also
need to better understand how these patients fair when they receive the
transplants. The bill would authorize research on the clinical outcomes
of patients who are recipients of a stem cell therapeutic product,
including bone marrow, cord blood, and other such products, from a
biologically unrelated donor. It is my hope that this additional
research will trigger new scientific breakthroughs to enhance and
advance human life.
This is an important bill that merited many hours of negotiation,
demanded the willingness of all those involved to put the interest of
their patients first. I would like to thank the bill's primary sponsor,
the honorable gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith). I would also like
to thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young); the House leadership,
including the honorable gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay); Congressional
Black Caucus; the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), the ranking
Democrat on the committee; the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown), the
subcommittee ranking member who is here to speak on the bill; and all
of the staff who have labored on this bill.
Particularly, I would like to thank Cheryl Jaeger, on my left, of my
committee staff, for all of her efforts. She has been tireless in the
last several months working on this bill. In the last few weeks, she
has been able to forge a compromise that ultimately was acceptable to
all the advocates of both bone marrow and cord blood.
We will continue to improve the legislation that moves forward so
that pregnant women are informed of all of their options with respect
to cord blood donation and the programmatic activities of the Cell
Transplantation Program are clarified.
Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I would urge all of my
colleagues to support this bill. It is good legislation, well thought
out, and deserving of majority support.
The Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005 Establishes a
Foundation for Improving Access to Lifesaving Cellular Therapy
Transplants
The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) is pleased that
the sponsors of the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of
2005 have taken a positive step forward toward expanding the
long-standing Congressional commitment to cellular transplant
therapies by introducing legislation to continue Federal
support for bone marrow, peripheral blood, and umbilical cord
blood transplantation and research. Through the legislation
introduced today, they acknowledge the important role
Congress has played and must continue to play in ensuring
that the more than 14,000 Americans in need of these types of
transplants have access to them.
The bill calls for Federal dollars to increase the number
of umbilical cord blood units available for transplant and
research. Currently, there are 42,000 units available through
the existing National Bone Marrow Donor Registry (National
Registry), which also lists more than 9 million adult donors
worldwide. With additional umbilical cord blood units added
to this registry, more Americans who would otherwise not be
able to locate a suitably matched adult donor will be able to
find hope through a cord blood transplant. The NMDP estimates
that with access to the existing adult donors and units, the
addition of 150,000 cord blood units listed through the
existing registry will provide a match for approximately 95
percent of Americans.
By designating the existing National Registry as the C.W.
Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program, the sponsors have
acknowledged Representative Young's unwavering commitment to
the National Registry and its growth. In 1986, Representative
Young's vision of a single integrated national bone marrow
donor registry became a reality. Since that time, the
National Registry has facilitated more than 21,000 unrelated
transplants involving cord blood, bone marrow, and peripheral
blood. It now includes more than 5 million U.S. adult
volunteer donors and has links to another 4 million
worldwide. As evidence supporting cord blood as a source of
the same cells found in bone marrow and peripheral blood has
grown, the National Registry, operated by the NMDP, has
expanded to include more than 42,000 cord blood units through
the NMDP's partnership with 14 of the 20 U.S. public cord
blood banks. We join the sponsors in saluting Representative
Young's dedication to helping the thousands of Americans in
need of these types of transplants.
The expansion of the Program will benefit patients most if
they are able to access the new sources of cells easily and
efficiently. The NMDP supports the intent of the sponsors to
provide patients and physicians with access to cord blood,
bone marrow, and peripheral blood stem cells through a single
point of access. To ensure the continued expansion of cord
blood transplants, it is important that patients and
physicians can search for all of these sources through a
single registry, compare each source of cells for transplant
quickly and efficiently, and obtain the cells once the search
process is finished. One-stop-shopping to obtain information
and logistical support is a critical component of the success
of transplantation regardless of whether adult donors or cord
blood units are used. The bill recognizes this need by
calling for a single point of access for these activities to
build upon the National Registry. Using the current registry
as a basis for the new program will ensure that limited
resources are dedicated to increasing the availability of
matches and not in reinventing new bureaucracies.
Although this bill is a step in the right direction, it is
critically important that the Program also have the authority
to establish criteria and standards that provide transplant
physicians with the assurances they
[[Page H3799]]
need to be confident that when they compare various cord
blood units and/or adult donors, they have the same type of
information about each unit or donor. In addition, the NMDP
urges members to recognize that transplant patients may
encounter other barriers to accessing cellular therapy
transplants. The need for assistance in addressing barriers
to access should be extended to all recipients of transplants
under this program, regardless of cell source. Physicians and
patients must be able to receive all of the services
necessary for a successful transplant, including distribution
coordination, patient counseling, translation assistance,
testing, insurance coordination, and other patient advocacy
services. We look forward to working with the sponsors and
the Department of Health and Human Services to strengthen
these provisions of the legislation.
The NMDP applauds the sponsors for undertaking this
important public health initiative. Through their leadership,
thousands of Americans who might otherwise die will have
access to lifesaving bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cell,
and cord blood transplants.
____
Statement of Administration Policy--May 24, 2005
H.R. 2520--Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005
(Rep. Smith (R) NJ and 78 cosponsors)
The Administration strongly supports House passage of H.R.
2520, which would facilitate the use of umbilical-cord-blood
stem cells in biomedical research and in the treatment of
disease. Cord-blood stem cells, collected from the placenta
and umbilical cord after birth without doing harm to mother
or child, have been used in the treatment of thousands of
patients suffering from more than 60 different diseases,
including leukemia, Fanconi anemia, sickle cell disease, and
thalassemia. Researchers also believe cord-blood stem cells
may have the capacity to be differentiated into other cell
types, making them useful in the exploration of ethical stem
cell therapies for regenerative medicine.
H.R. 2520 would increase the publicly available inventory
of cord-blood stem cells by enabling the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) to contract with cord-blood banks to
assist them in the collection and maintenance of 150,000
cord-blood stem cell units. This would make matched cells
available to treat more than 90 percent of patients in need.
The bill would also link all participating cord-blood banks
to a search network operated under contract with HHS,
allowing physicians to search for matches for their patients
quickly and effectively in one place. The bill also would
reauthorize a similar program already in place for aiding the
use of adult bone marrow in medical care. There is now $19
million available to implement the Cord Blood Cell Bank
program; the Administration will work with the Congress to
evaluate future spending requirements for these activities.
The bill is also consistent with the recommendation from the
National Academy of Science to create a National Cord Blood
Stem Cell Bank program.
The Administration also applauds the bill's effort to
facilitate research into the potential of cord-blood stem
cells to advance regenerative medicine in an ethical way.
Some research indicates that cord blood cells may have the
ability to be differentiated into other cell types, in ways
similar to embryonic stem cells, and so present similar
potential uses but without raising the ethical problems
involved in the intentional destruction of human embryos. The
Administration encourages efforts to seek ethical ways to
pursue stem cell research, and believes that--with the
appropriate combination of responsible policies and
innovative scientific techniques--this field of research can
advance without violating important ethical boundaries. H.R.
2520 is an important step in that direction.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Today, Mr. Speaker, we will consider two bills that have significant
bearing on the future of medicine and medical research in our country.
I want to thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) and the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) for their work on the first of these
bills. The Smith-Barton legislation reauthorizes the National Bone
Marrow Donor Program and adds a new national cord blood registry. Cord
blood and bone marrow have several therapeutic uses in common: first
and foremost, the treatment of blood diseases. Coordinating these two
registries makes sense for patients, for doctors, and for the public
health. With this kind of coordinated program, there will be a single
entry point for transplant doctors and their patients to locate
available cord blood units.
This bill also increases outreach and education efforts so that we
can amass the most diverse possible reserves of cord blood. It improves
data keeping and distribution so that necessary blood gets to patients
as quickly and as accurately as possible. In addition to the
therapeutic uses of cord blood, this bill makes cord blood stem cells
available for research purposes.
There is clearly therapeutic potential in the use of cord blood and
adult stem cells. Some of the most important research in this area is
taking place in Ohio, in northeast Ohio, where I call home, at the
National Center for Regenerative Medicine, a partnership of Case
Western Reserve University hospitals, and the Cleveland Clinic in
Cleveland.
I mentioned we will be considering two bills today that have
significant bearing on the future of medicine. And it is in the
research area that the distinctions between these two bills takes on
the greatest significance.
{time} 1230
Smith-Barton focuses on cord-blood and adult stem cell research. In
the Castle-DeGette bipartisan bill, it focuses on embryonic stem cell
research. That is a critical distinction, and the House needs to
acknowledge that. Cord-blood and adult stem cell research are not
substitutes for embryonic stem cell research. They are not alternative
avenues to the same medical outcomes. Each type of research holds
unique potential.
For example, while adult stem cells represent an important advance in
the treatment of blood disorders, these cells simply do not occur in
every tissue in the body. Because there are no adult stem cells, for
example, in the pancreas, the potential of adult stem cells to develop
into therapies for a disease like diabetes is very limited. That is one
example of many.
Embryonic stem cell, on the other hand, can grow into any type of
cell in the body, making potential use of these far more diverse and
far more valuable.
We should not minimize the importance of cord-blood and adult stem
cell research, but by the same token, we shouldn't mislead the public
into believing that if Smith-Barton passes, the Castle-DeGette bill is
unnecessary, because surely it is not. It is irresponsible and even
dangerous for Members of this body to distort the value of one form of
research in order to stifle another promising avenue of research.
We in this Congress have a responsibility to support medical research
and to foster its development, as the committee of the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Barton) committee has done well over time. Millions of lives
have been saved and improved because of the brilliant research
conducted in this country. We also have a responsibility to speak
honestly about that research and its potential.
Both sides of this debate owe it to the public to draw clear lines
between the beliefs we hold and the facts that hold, regardless of what
we believe. The fact is that cord-blood research, adult stem cell
research and embryonic stem cell research are not interchangeable. The
fact is, if we invest in all three types of research, we may finally be
able to find cures for debilitating illnesses, cures that are currently
beyond our reach.
The fact is, if the U.S. withholds funding for embryonic stem cell
research, that research will continue, just at a significantly slower
pace. People that you and I know, they may be friends, they may be
family members, they may be professional colleagues, will suffer and
die from potentially curable illnesses while we wait for the rest of
the world to fill our shoes.
Researchers in other nations, researchers in private institutions in
this country, are pursuing embryonic stem cell research because they
know that it is possible to accomplish this research in an ethical
manner. Embryonic stem cell research does not and need not increase the
number of embryos that are destroyed. Instead, it decreases the number
of embryos that are destroyed in vain.
We will have an opportunity today to pass two pieces of legislation,
both are important, that will deliver hope to patients whose futures
depend on new answers to life and death medical questions. Our Nation
cannot pick and choose between cord-blood research and adult stem cell
research and embryonic stem cell research if we want to answer all
these questions, unless we want to offer hope to some and sympathy to
others.
Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to vote in favor of both the Smith-Barton
bill
[[Page H3800]]
and the Castle-DeGette bill. Doing so will show that what you know and
what you believe intersects at the point where medical progress is
harnessed to alleviate untold human suffering.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that debate
on this motion be extended by 20 minutes, equally divided between
myself and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown).
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). Is there objection to the
request of the gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman
from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the original author of the bill and my
cosponsor.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for
yielding and for his leadership on this bill and for cosponsoring it,
along with the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis) on the other side of
the aisle for his leadership over the last 3 years as we crafted this
legislation. It is finally on the floor after almost 3 years of work;
and again I thank my friend, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis) for
his leadership.
One of the best kept secrets in America today is that umbilical cord-
blood stem cells and adult stem cells are curing people of a myriad of
terrible conditions and diseases. One of the greatest hopes that I have
is that these current-day miracles, denied to many because of an
insufficient inventory and inefficient means of matching cord-blood
stem cells with patients, will now become available to tens of
thousands of patients as a direct result of the Stem Cell Therapeutic
and Research Act of 2005, H.R. 2520.
Amazingly, we are on the threshold of systematically turning medical
waste, umbilical cords and placentas, into medical miracles for huge
numbers of very sick and terminally ill patients who suffer from such
maladies as leukemia and sickle cell anemia. And because this
legislation promotes cord-blood research as well, we can expect new and
expanded uses of these very versatile stem cells.
For the first time ever, our bill establishes a nationwide stem cell
transplantation system. It also authorizes the national bone marrow
transplant system and combines both under a new program, providing an
easy, single-access point for information for doctors and patients and
for the purpose of collecting and analyzing outcomes data.
The new program created in our legislation is named for our
distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young),
because of all of his great work on bone marrow transplantation over
the last 2 decades.
Mr. Speaker, cord-blood stem cells are already treating and curing
patients. Unlike embryonic stem cell research that has not cured one
person, cord-blood stem cells are treating patients. The New York Blood
Center, for example, has treated thousands of patients with more than
65 different diseases, including sickle cell disease, leukemia and
osteoporosis.
Some of those patients came and told their stories yesterday at a
press conference, and they are in the gallery watching this debate
right now. One of those men, a young man named Keonne Penn was here to
tell his story of how he was cured of sickle cell anemia, and he said,
``If it wasn't for cord-blood stem cells, I would probably be dead by
now. It is a good thing I found a match. It saved my life.''
Stephen Sprague, another man who was cured of leukemia, said he too
was lucky to find a cord-blood match. And 22-year-old Jaclyn Albanese,
who just graduated from Rutgers University from my State, said, ``If
the New York blood center had not been there, I do not know what kind
of shape I would be in.'' She is thankful as well.
Mr. Speaker, I say to my colleagues, cord-blood has also been used to
treat Hurler's disease and Krabbe's disease, both neurological
conditions, which blows away the idea that cord-blood stem cells are
limited in the potential and the capacity to turn into other kinds of
cells. That is not too surprising, I say to my colleagues, when you
simply read the published literature on the flexibility of cord-blood
stem cells.
According to a July 2004 study published in the Journal of
Experimental Medicine, a research group led by Dr. Kogler found ``a new
human somatic stem cell from placental cord-blood with intrinsic
pluripotent differential potential,'' which means it can become any
type of cell in the body. In addition, they found that the cells could
expand to 10 quadrillion, or 10 to the power of 15, cells before losing
any pluripotent abilities.
And cord-blood stem cells are not only ahead in treating real human
patients, they are also able to turn into different kinds of cells for
research. One company has already turned cord-blood stem cells into
representatives of three germinal layers, including neural stem cells,
nerve stem cells, liver/pancreas precursors, skeletal muscle, fat
cells, bone cells and blood vessels.
Last month, Celgene Corporation announced that cord-blood cells ``are
`pluripotent', or have the ability to become different types of
tissue.'' So we are just on the beginning of realizing the vast
potential of what was formerly medical waste and has now been turned
into these medical miracles.
Let me just say to my colleagues that this idea that research on bone
marrow and cord-blood stem cells has been researched on for decades and
that embryo stem cells have only been researched for a short time is
ludicrous and an unfair attack on cord-blood stem cell research. During
the entire period where research has been happening in this area of
regenerative medicine, the idea that cells can change types and repair
organs, both adult and embryo cells have been around in animals. And,
again, great progress has been made in the cord-blood and the adult
stem cell. My bill needs to be passed.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman
from California (Ms. Matsui).
(Ms. MATSUI asked and was given permission to revise and extend 2
remarks.)
Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2520, as
well as the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, as both bills are part
of today's larger debate on stem cell research and the hope being
offered with them.
As Samuel Smiles said, ``Hope is the companion of power and the
mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of
miracles.''
That is what today's debate is about, because at its core, stem cell
research is about the idea of hope and miracles, a hope which has
become quite personal for me. As you know, my husband Bob, who worked
with all of you for so many years, suffered from a rare bone marrow
disorder. I saw what this disease did to him. I saw his life cut short.
And it is my hope that by expanding stem cell research, other families
will have more than just a hope for a cure for this disease, as well as
many, many others.
But to be effective, hope and optimism need to be based on a
possibility. This is what we are talking about today, whether or not
this country will close the door on hope on the unexplainable, on what
is truly a miracle. It is clear that by passing this bill and the Stem
Cell Research Enhancement Act we will not be reading articles in next
week's paper that we found the cure for cancer or any other disease,
that we hope to be effected. But I feel strongly that the effects of
Federal dollars and involvement in stem cell research will make an
unquestionable difference.
Our country has been a leader in so many areas of medicine. Now is
not the time to cede our role to countries like South Korea, France or
Great Britain. By doing so, we will not only diminish the contributions
of Americans, but also our ability to shape and impact the ethical
debate.
Both bills are an important step in harnessing the power of optimism.
I hope we will not ignore this opportunity.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from New Jersey (Mr. Ferguson), a member of the Committee on Energy and
Commerce.
Mr. FERGUSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, today we will hear some of our colleagues talk about the
empty promise of embryonic stem cell research. They will argue for
research
[[Page H3801]]
that not only requires the destruction of human life, but to date, has
also not yielded a single therapy.
What we in Congress should be advocating for is the continuing
advancement of adult stem cell research, a true scientific success
story, which has benefited thousands of Americans already.
Perhaps nowhere is this success more evident than in the advancement
of cord-blood stem cells. A rich source of stem cells, umbilical cords
are already treating patients. Cord-blood stem cells have already been
used to treat thousands of patients and more than 67 different
diseases, including leukemia, sickle cell anemia and lymphoma. The New
York Blood Center's National cord-blood program alone has provided
transplants to over 1,500 gravely ill children and adults.
And there is great promise for the future. Studies have shown that
these cells have the capacity to change into other cell types, giving
them potential to treat debilitating conditions such as Parkinson's
disease, spinal cord injury and diabetes.
The Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act focuses government efforts
on research with real promise, providing Federal funding to increase
the number of cord-blood units available to match and treat patients.
The bill also takes on the recommendations of the Institute of
Medicine, providing a national network that would link all the cord-
blood banks participating in an inventory program into a search system,
allowing transplant physicians to search for cord-blood and bone marrow
matches through a single-access point.
{time} 1245
It would also promote additional stem cell research for units not
suitable for transplant. The Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act
advances true stem cell research, research with real promise, grounded
in proven science; and it is ethically sound.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important and
timely legislation.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman
from Alabama (Mr. Davis).
Mr. DAVIS of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by joining the
various Members of this institution who will speak today and who will
urge the passage of both of these bills. I certainly cannot speak with
the particular passion of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Matsui)
who has been touched by this issue, but this is a very good day for the
House of Representatives. It is a very good day, because we have
managed to reach across the partisan divides, I believe twice today, or
we will manage to reach across the partisan divide, I believe twice
today, to pass bills that are good for the American people and good for
countless numbers of Americans who need this research.
I want to say something about the cord blood bill in particular. I
have had the honor for 2 years of working with the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Smith) on this bill, and I am a Democratic sponsor on it;
and I want to thank him for his good work.
This bill will make an enormous difference to the African Americans
around this country who often struggle with blood matches. Cord bloods
do not require a blood match. The young man that we saw on the Cannon
terrace yesterday who suffered from sickle cell anemia whose life has
been permanently transformed by cord blood cell technology speaks to
the power of this bill. We talk a great deal about health care
disparities, and we ought to talk about health care disparities in this
country; but rather than talk, this bill acts. It actually provides
relief for a group of people who otherwise would not have seen it.
But I want to talk for just a moment about the concept of principled
difference, because I think it is very much illustrated today. Mr.
Speaker, the reason that this cord blood bill made it to the floor is
in large measure because rather than digging in in opposition to stem
cell opposition, as strongly as the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Smith) feels about this issue, rather than digging in in opposition,
the gentleman worked with the scientific community, he worked across
the aisle to try to find another approach. And as circumstance has it,
both of these approaches are before us today.
If we would somehow as an institution learn from his example, if we
figured out how, rather than digging in and deciding how much we
disagree with each other, what other ways exist, what ways can we find
to work together, we would not have a 34 percent approval rating as an
institution.
The final point that I will make is that I firmly believe that we
have all of our genius and all of our brilliance as a scientific and
medical community for a very good reason. I think that we are meant to
use it. I am hopeful that all of the technological advances that have
happened in the last several years, with cord blood cells and with stem
cells, can make a significant difference.
So to all the Members of this institution, I simply urge them and
encourage them to vote for both of these bills but, even more
importantly, to accept this as an example of what happens when
Democrats and Republicans find intelligent common ground. There will be
people who will benefit from this, and I do not think it is going too
far to say that lives will be saved because of these two bills.
So I thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for his good
work and, again, I am honored to be the lead Democratic sponsor of the
cord blood bill.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon), a doctor, and one of
our more thoughtful Members on this subject and somebody who has given
a lot of time to it.
Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I commend the chairman of the
Committee on Energy and Commerce and his staff, as well as the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), for their diligent work on
bringing this very, very good bill to the floor of the House.
What we are going to be voting for here will help create a banking
system so that if a patient comes in to see me with a particular
illness that is amenable to treatment with stem cells, I can enter
their genetic information in a computer, find a match of cord blood
that would be kept in a freezer, and actually treat the patient. It is
really exciting, I have to say. I never thought I would live to see the
day where we would be curing sickle cell anemia. And for those of my
colleagues who do not know about sickle cell anemia, sickle cell is a
terrible disease. You get these young people, kids, coming in your
office with these horrible, painful crises where their bones are aching
and you end up having to give them narcotics and transfuse them. It
stunts their growth, horrible condition. We now have 10, 10 kids that
have been cured of sickle cell anemia.
Just yesterday I was flying up here, and as I often do, I grabbed
some medical journals to read on the plane. I was reading the May 19
issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and, lo and behold,
another research article, this one on transplantation of umbilical cord
blood in babies with Infantile Krabbe's disease, a rare disease, a
terrible disease, the babies die; and this cord blood study shows if
you catch it early, you can actually cure these kids.
I know there have been a number of Members coming to the floor
talking about the embryonic bill that we are going to take up later;
the embryonic stem cells have never been shown to be successfully
useful in a human model. They do not even have one case. We have
thousands of people who have been treated with adult stem cells and
these cord blood treatments.
I just want to correct the gentleman from Alabama. He has implied
some of us are against stem cell research. That is not the case at all
here. We are just for ethical stem cell research.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman
from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking Member for
yielding me this time.
Let me thank the sponsors of this legislation, the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Smith), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), the
gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis), and, of course, the gentlewoman
from Colorado (Ms. DeGette) and the gentleman from Delaware (Mr.
Castle) for the second bill, the bills being H.R. 810 and H.R. 2520.
Let me just say that separating these two legislative initiatives
would be
[[Page H3802]]
like separating the Flag from the Pledge of Allegiance. It is
appropriate to have a marriage today of two very vital and important
legislative initiatives, one dealing with adult stem cell research,
which is vital and done along ethical lines and will help many in our
community that have a number of significant diseases; in particular,
Alzheimer's and sickle cell anemia. Then, of course, the importance of
stem cell lines and expanding it under Federal funding is something
that we cannot imagine.
Let me tell my colleagues about an individual that I love and admire
in my community, Reverend M.L. Jackson, exciting, exuberant, a leader
in our community. His family just said that with all of his leadership
and heading up ministerial alliances, he has Alzheimer's. I go home
this weekend to meet with Reverend Jackson and to recount his life with
him as he now sees it. But would it not be wonderful for a vibrant and
outstanding leader of our community to have an expanded opportunity, as
Nancy Reagan argued for, for President Reagan.
Unless Federal funding for stem cell research is expanded, the United
States stands in real danger of falling behind other countries in this
promising area of research. I would mention that the National Academy
of Sciences recently issued a set of guidelines to ensure that human
embryonic stem cell research is conducted in a safe and ethical manner.
This legislation, the Castle-DeGette legislation, H.R. 810, and, of
course, the fantastic and forward-thinking legislation, H.R. 2520,
sponsored by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), the gentleman from
New Jersey (Mr. Smith), and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis),
represents a coming together of our family. It certainly deserves a
good marriage. Just as we cannot separate the Pledge and the Flag, let
us unite today and vote unanimously on these two outstanding
initiatives to support American stem cell research, and to save lives.
Mr. Chairman, I rise this morning in support of the ``Stem Cell
Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005.'' This measure, sponsored by
Christopher H. Smith, Joe Barton, and Artur Davis would promote
research on a type of stem cell, known as an adult stem cell, taken
from umbilical cord blood. In addition, the bill creates a new federal
program to collect and store umbilical-cord-blood stem cells, and
expands the current bone-marrow registry program.
While I have no objections to the bill, it is important that no one
view H.R. 2520 as a substitute for H.R. 810, the ``Stem Cell Research
Enhancement Act.'' These are entirely different bills, but both deserve
passage.
Recent discoveries have convinced scientists that stem cells might
eventually become the key to treating diseases such as Parkinson's,
diabetes, and heart disease. Researchers hope to be able to study stem
cells to better understand how diseases develop and eventually use them
to generate tissues that could replace damaged or diseased tissues and
organs in patients.
Adult stem cells are unspecialized cells found in specialized tissue
such as bone marrow or skeletal tissue. Initially, scientists viewed
their medical applications as limited in what they can become to the
cell types from which they were extracted. Recent evidence has
suggested that adult stem cells could provide more flexibility than
previously thought, according to the National Institutes of Health.
This legislation would create a new federal program to collect and
store umbilical-cord-blood stem cells, and reauthorizes and expands the
current bone marrow registry program. I am supportive of this bill
because it would be of great benefit to African Americans. This bill
has specific language that would diversify the Bone Marrow Banks of
this nation. This would be of extreme importance to many African
Americans suffering from Sickle Cell Anemia.
As you can see, these are complicated issues, but I think we are
headed in the right direction. This bill would help our doctors and
scientists discover new treatments and cures for otherwise debilitating
and incurable diseases and ailments. For this I must support it.
However, I cannot support this bill without clarifying that it should
not be viewed as an alternative to H.R. 810, rather as a complementary
force.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from California (Mr. Daniel E. Lungren).
Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the
gentleman for yielding me this time.
I rise in support of H.R. 2520, which I really view as a
noncontroversial, bipartisan piece of legislation that we should all be
able to agree on. I think one speaker a moment ago talked about science
and our obligation to promote science. I would agree with him, but with
this caveat: science tells us what we can do; science does not tell us
what we should do. That is an ethical dimension, and we are called upon
oftentimes to decide what the ethical thing to do is.
Here we have a piece of legislation dealing with an emerging area of
science, but one that has already proven itself to be effective in
human application and one that also shows itself to be easily obtained,
that is, we either throw away umbilical cords, throw away the umbilical
cord and the placenta at the time of birth, or we save the blood that
can be captured at that time to make it available such that the stem
cells can be taken from that and utilized in this therapeutic fashion.
This bill would also allow us to do research with these stem cells.
There is a tremendous frontier out there. There is a tremendous
frontier that shows tremendous opportunity for success. I do not want
to overhype it. I do not know far it will go, but certainly it has not
gotten the attention that needs to be given it. When we talk about stem
cells, we can talk about how we obtain the stem cells. We can do it in
several ways. And there is an ethical dimension, an ethical dilemma
that exists with respect to the second bill that will be up today.
There is no such dilemma that exists with respect to this bill.
We can obtain this in very easy ways, voluntarily, asking mothers at
the time their children are born to donate these units such that others
might be helped. We have been laggard in our approach to this
particular area of science. Again, I say, where we have no ethical
question, where we have strong support from the scientific community,
we should do no less than to support this bill strongly.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman
from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen).
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me
this time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2520, the Stem Cell
Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005. The gentleman from Texas
(Chairman Barton), the gentleman from Michigan (Ranking Member
Dingell), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), and the gentleman
from Alabama (Mr. Davis) are to be applauded for their leadership and
the bipartisan way in which they worked to craft this bill and bring it
to the floor today.
I have come to this floor on numerous occasions to remind my
colleagues about the health care crisis taking place in minority
communities. I am proud to say that while this bill is important to
saving the lives of all Americans, it also has the potential to
eliminate the disparity in pain management and treatment of chronic
diseases, and inherited ones, like sickle cell anemia in minorities.
In September of last year, I hosted one of the first briefings on
Capitol Hill about the importance of cord blood. As discussed then,
with additional umbilical cord blood units added to the registry, more
Americans, and minorities in particular, who would otherwise not be
able to locate a suitably matched, adult transplant donor, will be able
to find successful treatment and, thus, hope. With the addition of a
possible 150,000 more cord blood units, we will be able to potentially
match up to 95 percent of Americans.
Earlier this month, the Institute of Medicine recommended that cord
blood donors be provided with clear information about their options,
including a balanced perspective on the different options of banking.
The bill directs the Secretary to guarantee that education.
But, Mr. Speaker, we need not only cord blood, but adult and
embryonic stem cells as well to provide the full complement of this
lifesaving therapy. As this chart shows, unlike human embryonic stem
cells, adult stem cells and stem cells from umbilical cord blood cannot
continually reproduce themselves and are unable to form diverse,
nonblood cell types. The cord blood stem cells are an important tool
for medicine, as I have said before, especially in the treatment of
blood diseases; but they are not, they are not a
[[Page H3803]]
substitute for embryonic stem cells. We need both.
So I strongly urge support for H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Enhancement
bill of 2005, and I urge the President to sign both bills into law.
That bill was introduced by the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette)
and the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle), and I commend them for
their work as well.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 810 would allow important research on embryonic
stem cells to continue. Many of the initial lines have been
contaminated and cannot be used. Further, the bill includes strong
safeguards to protect life and against abuse.
I urge my colleagues to support these bills and to join me in urging
the President to sign both bills. Through the enactment of H.R. 2520
and H.R. 810, we can provide this lifesaving therapy to many who
otherwise may not have any other option to improve or extend their
lives. They and their families are depending on us.
{time} 1300
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 15 seconds to the gentleman
from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), very briefly.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I just want to make the point
that some misinformation perhaps inadvertently is being spread on this
floor, that these stem cells that are derived from cord blood only have
a blood application. That is unmitigated nonsense. It is not true. And
I pointed out in my opening comments that in the Celgene Cellular
Therapeutics first reported back in 2001 that placental stem cells
turned into nerve, blood, cartilage, skin and muscle cells, and that
since that time other studies have confirmed cord blood's pluripotent
capability. Surely there needs to be further research.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to a member of
the committee, the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr.
Murphy).
Mr. MURPHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding his time.
You know, you cannot divorce medical research from medical ethics.
And as such, it is critically important we are dealing here with
medical facts.
First of all, although many Members and the public and the media seem
to get this wrong, the truth is, I believe we will have probably close
to unanimous support for using Federal dollars for stem cell research,
but it is important to understand the different types:
Adult stem cell, which has much promise to harvest and grow these,
although it has some risk for infections and other problems. Some
30,000 people have been treated.
Umbilical cord, which is pluripotent. It can be used in multiple
ways. Over 6,000 cases have been treated.
Frozen embryo research, zero. And cloning has its own problems with
that as well.
In the area of umbilical cord blood, one of the cases, because in my
practice, I oftentimes dealt with children with developmental
disabilities. One case of the New England Journal of Medicine reports
90 percent success rate with Hurley's syndrome, a developmental
disorder, autosomal dominant one, which ends up in severe developmental
delays and death. Those are incredible results, incredible results that
come from looking at the facts of what cord blood stem cell research is
about.
Let us not distort this discussion and confuse cord blood and
embryonic, because when you are using cord blood, umbilical blood, you
are not killing anyone. You are not limiting or destroying a life. You
are taking something that has been discarded in the normal process of
pregnancy and birth.
Let us help support the continuation of this vital research which
does not just show promise, but shows demonstrable results. And it does
not involve the ending of any life in the process. This is where we
should continue our research. This is where we must continue our work.
This is where we must take our stand today, to continue to support
medical research that is important. Look also at medical ethics.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, could the Chair inform both sides how
much time is remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Flake). The gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
Brown) has 13 minutes. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) has 11
minutes.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman
from New York (Mr. Engel), a member of the Health Subcommittee.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown)
for yielding time to me. And I rise in support of H.R. 2520, the Stem
Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005. This act, combined with H.R.
810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, will go a long way
towards helping millions of Americans who suffer from debilitating
health conditions.
I wholeheartedly support umbilical stem cell research, but also
support embryonic stem cell research. As anyone who suffers from
diabetes, Parkinson's disease, ALS, or a host of other health problems
knows, one possible treatment is the use of stem cells to help regrow
the tissues affected by their ailments.
Scientists have stated that embryonic stem cells provide the best
opportunity for devising unique treatments of these serious diseases
since, unlike adult stem cells, they may be induced to develop into any
type of cell. Adult stem cells are also problematic, as they are
difficult to identify, purify and grow, and simply may not exist for
certain diseased tissues that need to be replaced.
Please understand that I do not discount the promise of adult stem
cell research or cord blood research, but I agree with the National
Institutes of Health that we must carefully study all types of adult
and embryonic stem cells. In their words, ``Given the enormous promise
of stem cell therapies for so many devastating diseases, NIH believes
that it is important to simultaneously pursue all lines of research.''
Our loved ones deserve science's best hope for the future.
Now, I want to say something. This is not about cloning. I oppose
cloning of human beings. This is about the use of embryonic stem cells
which would have been discarded anyway.
I want to repeat that. This is about the use of embryonic stem cells
which would have been discarded anyway. It has been estimated that
there are currently 400,000 frozen IVF embryos, which would be
destroyed if they are not donated for research.
I would never condone the donation of embryos to science without the
informed, written consent of donors and strict regulations prohibiting
financial remuneration for potential donors. Our Nation's scientific
research must adhere to the highest ethical standards. But it is
important that we do embryonic stem cell research. We are falling
behind other countries, and this is not what ought to be happening.
President Bush has limited Federal funding of stem cell research to
only those stem cell lines that existed prior to August of 2001. But
unfortunately, only 22 cell lines are available for study, which
prevents scientists from having access to important genetic cell
diversity. Simply put, if it continues, that would not be ethical.
Please support both bills.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman
from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).
Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith's) Stem Cell Therapeutics and
Research Act of 2005, and commend the gentleman for his courageous and
principled stand for the sanctity of life.
As a physician Member, I know that significant successes are being
reported from the use of umbilical cord stem cells in the treatment of
67 diseases, including sickle cell anemia, leukemia, osteoporosis and
lymphoma. There is great promise in this research. Umbilical cord stem
cells, unlike embryonic stem cells can be matched to a recipient by
blood type, gender, ethnicity, that results in fewer tissue rejections.
Compare this to embryonic stem cells. Aside from the fact that
harvesting embryonic stem cells results in the destruction of innocent
life, embryonic stem cells are gathered without knowledge of blood cell
type, without assurance that they are free from infection, and without
screening for genetic defects. These embryonic stem cells may be
mismatched, carry infection, or have genetic defects with cancer-
producing potential.
There is a better way, Mr. Speaker. It is H.R. 2520, which enhances
Federal
[[Page H3804]]
funding for expanding the already successful use of umbilical cord stem
cells. When you consider the ethics and the science and the debate, it
is clear that cord blood stem cells are the right choice for our
Federal funding and scientific support.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. Gene Green), an outstanding member of the Health
Subcommittee.
Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support not
only H.R. 2520, but also H.R. 810, the Castle/DeGette legislation to
expand Federal research for embryonic stem cells.
Undoubtedly, each of us on this floor today has a friend, family
member or neighbor who could benefit from increased embryonic stem cell
research, whether they suffer from spinal cord injury, Alzheimer's, MS
or juvenile diabetes. As we consider both the Castle/DeGette stem cell
bill and the Smith legislation on umbilical cord stem cells, it is
important we differentiate between the effects of these two bills.
I support both of them. But one is not a substitute for the other.
The Castle/DeGette bill will expand research on embryonic stem cells,
which would have the ability to reproduce indefinitely and to evolve
into any cell type in the body.
It is this element of embryonic cell research that offers the most
hope for finding cures to the diverse set of diseases that plague too
many Americans. We cannot take away that hope by shutting the door on
Federal research on embryonic stem cells. The President's policy shut
that door, and we have lost 4 years of robust research that will be
needed to cure the most complex diseases.
Opponents of this bill will say that the embryonic cell research is
unproven, but we will never know the true promise of embryonic stem
cells if we hold back Federal dollars for the research. If embryonic
stem cell research gets us even one step closer to curing Parkinson's,
spinal cord injury and Alzheimer's, it is worth every penny. Just ask
Michael J. Fox, Dana Reeves or Nancy Reagan.
These tremendous people, as well as countless more in each of our
communities, know what it is like to live every day waiting for your
cure. Slamming the door on stem cell research slams the door in their
faces.
We talk about using our values to pass legislation to help people.
Both these bills are important to helping people with such terrible
illnesses.
This last Saturday I helped my wife's mom move into a nursing home.
She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in the mid-1990s. We have watched
the progression of that terrible disease. Nothing can help my mother-
in-law. But by voting today for both these bills, we can help maybe the
next generation, instead of sticking our heads in the sand.
I urge my colleagues to do the right thing for the millions of
Americans suffering from incurable diseases. Pass both the Castle/
DeGette bill and the Smith legislation and keep the hope for embryonic
cell and cord blood research alive.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
distinguished Majority Leader of the great State of Texas (Mr. DeLay),
Fort Bend County, Sugarland.
Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, the issue of human cloning and embryonic stem
cell research cuts to the very core of politics. And today the House
will hear passionate arguments, essentially about the nature and value
of human life.
Now, that debate will be, among other things, controversial, because
the proponents of embryo destruction in the name of progress believe it
is not the embryo destruction its opponents oppose, but rather progress
itself. But it is not so, and the bill before us now, the Stem Cell
Therapeutic and Research Act proves it.
This bill, which provides for Federal funding of research using adult
stem cells which have, unlike embryonic stem cells, proven medical
benefits in treating more than 60 separate diseases, will pass with the
overwhelming support of both sides of this debate.
Now, this bill, sponsored by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Smith) will, for the first time, provide for taxpayer-funded research
on well-developed stem cells from umbilical cords, expand Federal
funding in bone marrow stem cell research, and provide for the
development of a national stem cell therapy database for medical
practitioners and researchers.
This is what progress is, Mr. Speaker, concrete, definable and based
on fact, rather than speculation or a false sense of hope.
The best one can say about embryonic stem cell research is that it is
a scientific exploration into the potential benefits of killing human
beings. Proponents of medical research on destroyed human embryos would
justify admittedly unfortunate means with the potential ends of medical
breakthroughs down the line.
But the deliberate destruction of unique, living self-integrated
human persons is not some incidental tangent of embryonic stem cell
research. It is the essence of the experiment. Kill some in hopes of
saving others.
The choice, however well intentioned, is predicated upon a
utilitarian view of human life that this bill shows our government need
not take. The Smith bill will fund the only kind of stem cell research
that has ever proven medically beneficial, while helping to develop new
and exciting avenues of inquiry, all without harming a single human
embryo.
This bill is progress, Mr. Speaker, and represents a perfect contrast
to speculative and harmful methods of embryonic stem cell research.
This is the right stem cell bill, Mr. Speaker.
Progress, even progress that pushes the envelope of medical
knowledge, need not be controversial. It need not divide us or force
people of goodwill to devalue human life. Progress, in fact, is the
opposite of such a choice. And the Smith bill unites the public and
private sectors, both doctors and patients, and recognizes the inherent
dignity and value of every human person.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman
from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick).
Ms. KILPATRICK of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I am a strong supporter of
stem cell research. It saves lives, it prolongs life, and it helps
unhealthy people remain existent on this earth.
I am a diabetic myself, and for the last decade I have been working
with stem cell research in my own district. The Karmanos Cancer
Institute, world renowned in our community and in Michigan, and part of
the former Detroit Medical Center, is a leader in research.
This bill deals with cord research, umbilical cord research, not
controversial. Medical professionals and others support umbilical cord
research.
{time} 1315
Umbilical cord research is the cord that is separated after a woman
delivers her child. In many instances, 90 percent of the time, those
cords are displaced and thrown away. What this bill will help us do is
first of all gather those cords across America to save lives, to renew
organs, and to continue life as we know it.
So I rise in support of H.R. 2520 as another means for us to prolong
life, to give life, from stem cords, umbilical cords of women that are
heretofore thrown out.
In our community, we are educating women and asking for their
permission that medical research is able to use the cords, the
umbilical cords of the fetus. It is new, it is exciting, and it is
happening all over the world. Our country is first in medical science;
and this act that we are taking today will continue research and
development, healthier lives and longer lives.
Support H.R. 2520 and let us bring America up so that we can save
lives, prolong lives, and build a real strong America.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the ``Stem Cell Therapeutic and
Research Act''.
This bill creates a new federal program to collect and store
umbilical cord blood stem cells and reauthorize and expands the current
bone marrow registry program.
Umbilical cord blood units, typically discarded at hospitals, can be
an unlimited source of stem cells with representation of all races and
ethnicities.
According to the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), African-
Americans have only a 30 percent chance of finding a stem cell match
within their own families and often require healthy stem cells from an
unrelated individual, typically another African American. Of the NMDP's
registry of donors, only 8 percent are from African-Americans.
[[Page H3805]]
I support the use of embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells and cord
blood research to find cures. I urge all of my colleagues to support
this bill and H.R. 810 ``Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act''
introduced by Representatives Mike Castle and Diana DeGette that would
lift Bush's 2001 ban on the use of federal dollars for research using
any mew embryonic stem cell lines.
All avenues of stem cell research need to be explored. The current
embryonic stem cell policy must be changed.
We can no longer tie the hands of our scientists and researchers when
millions of lives are at stake.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman
from Georgia (Mr. Price).
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding
me time. I want to congratulate the chairman and the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis) for their
leadership.
What we are doing with this legislation is that we are celebrating
life and we are celebrating science. Our debate today and this bill,
this bill is so very important because it is not often that politicians
get it right when dealing with health care or science. I know. As a
physician I have seen government inject itself in places it ought not
go and spend countless dollars on fanciful and distorted claims.
However, H.R. 2520 will save lives and improve the quality of life for
millions. And I know this because it will increase the use of a science
that has already been proven.
As a new Member of Congress, I am proud to stand before you and lend
my support to a positive and productive piece of legislation that will
bring sunlight to those who have experienced too many clouds, and it
will do so in an unquestionable and ethical manner.
I commend the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), the gentleman from
New Jersey (Mr. Smith), and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis) for
their persistence, their cooperation, and their leadership.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the
gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones).
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to lend my voice to the
stem cell research debate. As a co-sponsor of H.R. 810, I hope we can
expand our scope and benefit of existing stem cell lines. H.R. 810
represents another step forward in our battle against diseases and
illnesses which we have spent billions of dollars trying to research,
treat, and cure.
As the premier medical research Nation, we must allow our researchers
and doctors to remain at the top of their fields of research both
internationally and nationally. We must support our research
institutions as they embark on the ethical, expert and very, very
necessary trials.
Federal research restricts federal funding of stem cell research to
the 78 stem cell lines that existed prior to Aug. 9, 2001. Mr. Speaker,
H.R. 810 does not usher us into uncharted waters: we are already
engaged in both the federal funding and the federal oversight of this
research. If we see the benefit to permitting research on 78, then the
argument is not embryonic research--but rather numbers.
I come from a district where we have perhaps the leading medical
research institutions. In my district Case Western Reserve University,
the Cleveland Clinic, and University Hospital have embarked on a
monumental and groundbreaking project to establish the National Center
for Regenerative Medicine. Within the walls of these three institutions
lie perhaps some of the most advanced and prolific members of the
scientific research community on regenerative medicine.
While this research is basically focused on adult stem cell and
umbilical cord research, we must continue to move forward with research
in a responsible, compassionate, and humane way. We must support the
efforts of the National Institutes of Health as we move forward.
I support the movement towards the treatment, research, and cure of
diseases and illnesses which the use of stem cells can alleviate.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman
from Indiana (Mr. Pence), the distinguished leader of the Republican
Study Committee.
(Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. I
commend the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for his visionary
legislation, the Stem Cell Research Act.
There is such enormous promise, Mr. Speaker, in adult stem cell
research, the ethical research that has been under way for decades and
has produced to date treatments to nearly 67 diseases including sickle
cell, leukemia, osteoporosis, just to name a few.
Even last October, a Korean woman who had been paralyzed for 19 years
took a few steps for reporters in Seoul with the aid of a walker and
ethical adult cord blood stem cells injected into her spine.
I just spoke today to a young man in my congressional district who
was injured last Saturday night and now faces a lifetime in a
wheelchair. I can tell you, having spoken to his parents, I would do
anything to help that brave young man out of that chair. I would do
anything except fund the destruction of human embryos for research.
President Kennedy said: ``To lead is to choose'' and today Congress
will choose and should choose to promote ethical healing by adopting
the Stem Cell Research Act, to prevent the erosion of the principle
that all human life, even embryonic human life, is sacred.
Say ``yes'' to ethical adult stem cell research and ``no'' to funding
the destruction of human embryos for scientific advancement.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, how many speakers does the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. Barton) have remaining and, Mr. Speaker, who has the
right to close?
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Flake). The gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Barton) has the right to close.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I have three willing speakers now
and more on the way.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts), a member of the committee.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in favor of adult stem cell research,
characterized by the gentleman from New Jersey's (Mr. Smith) bill, and
oppose H.R. 810, the Castle legislation, that would propose Federal
dollars for destroying human embryos for embryonic stem cell research.
I can illustrate the difference with these two binders. In this one
binder there are 67 successful treatments using adult stem cells, and
stem cells from cord blood, adult stem cells for treatment of diseases.
They are all categorized here by diseases, successful treatments. From
embryonic stem cell research: zero.
The simple fact of the matter is with the use of embryonic stem cells
the only thing that you have today are dead embryos and dead laboratory
rats with tumors. They have not worked. They do not work. With adult
stem cells you have live patients with treatments. This is the ethical
way to go. This is what we should support.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, we wonder, as most medical scientists wonder, why not
both kinds of research. We in no way want to restrict it to just one or
the other like my friends on the other side of the aisle.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman
from Delaware (Mr. Castle), the distinguished Congressman and former
Governor of the first State of our Union.
Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2520, which
establishes a national cord blood stem cell inventory, a cord blood
system, and to reauthorize the National Bone Marrow Registry.
This is an important piece of legislation because it addresses a
vital need to establish a publicly coordinated national umbilical cord
blood bank similar to the National Bone Marrow Registry. However, it is
important to note that umbilical cord blood cells are a type of adult
stem cells that have been used only to treat blood disorders like
leukemia and lymphoma.
Scientists do not believe that these cord blood stem cells will
provide answers to diseases like diabetes, Parkinson's, spinal cord
injuries, or other nonblood-related disorders.
[[Page H3806]]
According to Dr. David Shaywitz, an endocrinologist and stem cell
researcher at Harvard, it seems extremely unlikely that adult blood
cells or blood cells from the umbilical cord will be therapeutically
useful as a source of anything else but blood. That is why we must
support all forms of stem cell research, including embryonic stem cell
research, so researchers have the greatest chance of discovering
treatments and cures. That is why I am supporting this legislation as
well as H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, to expand the
current Federal embryonic stem cell policy.
I urge everyone to support this legislation and support H.R. 810.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman
from Pennsylvania (Ms. Hart).
Ms. HART. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the legislation to help
us have continued success in the funding for research for uses for
adult stem cells.
Adult stem cells really encompass a number of different kinds. People
have talked today about cord blood. They have talked about the bone
marrow stem cells. A number of them have already been used clinically
and with much success.
I believe it is this Congress's duty to help support that, because
certainly we will have many people who have benefited already and
additional people in the future who can benefit from this kind of
research. In fact, the University of Pittsburgh in my hometown just
announced about a week or so ago that they are doing clinical trials
regarding the use of bone marrow stem cells to help reverse chronic
heart failure.
I met a gentleman actually who was involved in the research, and they
talked about trials that have already been done in South America that
have been successful. These are all with adult stem cells. It is
important for Congress to fund research, but it is especially important
for this Congress to fund responsible research and that is the research
supported on this bill on adult stem cells.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) has 4-
\1/2\ minutes. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) has 4 minutes.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I have two remaining speakers.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I have one speaker remaining, and I
will close.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Weldon).
Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise again to set the record
straight.
There have been some people who have implied there is limited
capacity for these cord blood stems to be used successfully. They have
been shown to be pluripotent. They can become all different cell types,
and they have shown a tremendous amount of plasticity.
This poster is of a young lady who was paralyzed for years and had an
adult stem cell transplant. She is able to stand up.
But I just want to clarify on the cord blood, it has been used to
treat leukemia, adrenoleukodystrophy, Burkitt's lymphoma, chronic
granulomatous diseases, congenital neutropenia, DiGeorge's syndrome,
Fanconi's anemia, and these are just some of them, Gaucher's disease.
Hodgkin's disease, cord blood has been used successfully to treat
Hodgkin's disease; idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, which is a
really bad disease. I used to see some of those. Krabbe's disease I
mentioned earlier, that was just in the New England Journal this month.
Lymphoma; lymphoproliferative syndrome; myelofibrosis; neuroblastoma,
which is a form of brain tumor which has been successfully treated with
cord blood. Osteopetrosis has been successfully treated. Reticular
dysgenesis, severe aplastic anemia.
The list goes on and on. There are 65 different medical conditions
that have been successfully treated with cord blood.
People have mentioned diabetes. Embryonic stem cells have not been
successfully used to treat diabetes either, but actually in animal
models adult stem cells have been used successfully to treat diabetes.
I think most of the hope and success is in this cord blood. That is why
this bill is very, very important.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1-\1/4\ minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to share the words from the President who
seems to have sent a different message than my friends on the other
side of the aisle.
President Bush said, ``Most scientists believe that research on
embryonic stem cells offers the most promise because these cells have
the potential to develop in all of the tissues in the body.''
I hear my friends on the other side of the aisle argue that we really
only need cord blood stem cell research, that that will lead us to all
that we need.
{time} 1330
And the President said about that, that ``No adult stem cell has been
shown in culture to be pluripotent.'' And he said, ``Embryonic stem
cells have the potential to develop into all or nearly all of the
tissues in the body.''
I then hear my friends on the other side of the aisle talk about
research, that this is going to lead to so much more research. Yet at
the same time we have seen no increase, flat-lined spending, budgeting
on the National Institutes of Health, something that many of us, the
gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette) and many of the rest of us,
have thought we should increase spending on, medical research all
across the board in all kinds of medical research.
Yes, in order to make room for the President's tax cuts that have
gone overwhelmingly to the wealthiest in our country, we have simply
cut medical research and not done what we should as a Nation do overall
in medical research.
So when I hear my friends talk on this, I do not quite get how this
will expand medical research while closing out one whole avenue of
medical research and, at the same time, cutting spending on what we
should be doing to move our country ahead.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
distinguished gentleman from the Keystone State of Pennsylvania (Mr.
Weldon).
Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, this is a difficult issue
for me. I am a diabetic. I have diabetes in my family. I am cochairman
of the Congressional Diabetes Caucus. My wife is a full-time diabetes
educator. She has spent her entire time as a health care professional
educating and working with diabetics.
The gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle) and the gentleman from
Massachusetts (Mr. Langevin) are very good friends of mine. I have
studied all their information. I have tried to be as open about this as
I possibly can be. But I can say, Mr. Speaker, that in the end it comes
down to not eliminating any type of research, because that is allowable
in this country; it is whether or not we should use Federal funds.
California is using some $3 billion right now on what this bill is
attempting to deal with.
In the end, Mr. Speaker, this is a very personal decision. It is one
that I agonized over. I am not a medical professional. I consulted with
all four of my friends who are medical doctors in this Chamber. They
have studied medicine, they understand medical research, they
understand bioethics far better than I ever will, and I come down on
their side. I come down on the side of life.
I will oppose the bill that is being offered by my friend, the
gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle) and my friend, the gentlewoman
from Colorado (Ms. DeGette) and I will support the alternative that is
being offered by this conference.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield the remainder of my time to
the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette), the sponsor of this bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Forbes). The gentleman from Ohio has
3\1/4\ minutes remaining.
Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I do not know why this debate has to be
either/or, either we are going to cure sickle cell anemia or we have
the potential to cure Type 1 diabetes. Every single American who
suffers from a terrible disease should have the right to a cure.
Now, this bill that we are debating right now, it is a fine bill. I
support
[[Page H3807]]
this bill. I think cord blood research is important. Like adult stem
cells, umbilical cord stem cells have proven to be a source of
hematopoietic stem cells. Those are the ones that are the blood-forming
stem cells that have been used for about a decade to treat blood
diseases like leukemia and lymphoma. That is great.
But it is not either that or H.R. 810, because unlike human embryonic
stem cells, stem cells from umbilical cord blood cannot continually
reproduce themselves. Instead of proliferating, they quickly evolve
into specialized cells. That is why they have not proven to be useful
in some of the early studies.
Now, the opponents of H.R. 810 say, well, embryonic stem cells have
not been used to cure any disease. That is because we are in the very
promising early stages of that research. And the adult stem cells have
been used in their narrow milieu to cure diseases and to help with
diseases that are blood specific.
Mr. Speaker, I am here to say that there is no, no scientific
evidence today that will show that the cord blood or the adult stem
cells will cure Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Type 1 diabetes, or the
multitude of other diseases that are not blood based.
Now, some of the opponents of H.R. 810 say, well, scientific studies
have shown adult stem cells to be pluripotent. Number one, their
argument, their argument is that embryonic stem cells have not shown
clinical application. Guess what? Neither have adult stem cells been
shown clinically to be pluripotent. Furthermore, the studies where
there were some indications of that were not peer reviewed and,
frankly, are rejected by the scientific community.
Here is a chart. This chart shows exactly what embryonic and adult
stem cells are good for and, frankly, they are good for different
things. So let us not muddle the science. If people do not want to do
embryonic stem cell research, they can look in the eye of our
colleague, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Langevin) and others
and say to them, we do not want to do the research that could cure your
disease, and I challenge them to do that.
In conclusion, Curt Civin, M.D., who is a doctor at Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine and a researcher, says ``As a physician-
scientist who has done research involving umbilical cord stem cells for
over 20 years, I am frequently surprised by the thought from
nonscientists that core blood stem cells may provide an alternative to
embryonic stem cells for research. This is simply wrong.''
And it is wrong to say either/or. That is why we should vote ``yes''
on this bill and H.R. 810.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 1 minute remaining.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my
time, and I want to thank the majority leader and the Speaker for
bringing these two bills to the floor today.
The first vote we will have is on the cord blood and bone marrow
bill, H.R. 2520. This bill, by itself, is an extremely important
advance for those of us that believe you can use medical research
ethically to help find cures for existing disease and enhance human
life both now and in the future.
I am, obviously, as one of the original sponsors of the bill, going
to vote for it and encourage all the Members on both sides of the aisle
to vote for its. It is a good piece of legislation and, by itself, is a
major advancement in the state of the art that we have today.
The next debate that we will have is on the Castle-DeGette bill which
is another form of stem cell research, embryonic stem cell. That issue
is much more controversial, but on its own merit that bill itself
deserves a serious debate. And while it is not yet time to debate that
bill, at that time I will announce that I will vote for that bill also.
So I hope we can do first things first. Let us pass in a strong
bipartisan fashion the Smith-Barton-Young adult cord blood bone marrow
bill, and then go on to the next issue.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my support for the Stem
Cell Therapeutics and Research Act of 2005. As many of my colleagues
have discussed, this bill provides federal support to help cord blood
banks collect and maintain new cord blood units. It's important to
acknowledge that this bill also reaffirms Congress's commitment to the
National Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
Established in 1986, the National Registry has facilitated more than
21,000 lifesaving transplants involving cord blood, peripheral blood,
and bone marrow. Although we are discussing cord blood for the first
time today, the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), which has
operated the National Registry since its inception, has already
incorporated cord blood into the registry to help patients, especially
minority patients whose genetic diversity often makes it difficult to
find a suitably matched adult volunteer donor. Through the NMDP today,
individuals in need of a cord blood transplant already have access to
the largest listing of cord blood units in the United States--more than
42,000 units. In addition, the NMDP lists more than 9 million adult
volunteer donors. Today, we celebrate the National Registry's success
by acknowledging its expanded role in the research and development of
new sources of hematopoietic cells for transplant by renaming it the CW
Bill Young Cell Therapies Program.
I am particularly proud of the work of the NMDP, especially its
strong support for cord blood and because of its partnership with the
St. Louis Cord Blood Bank. The St. Louis Cord Blood Bank is the
cornerstone of an active clinical stem cell transplantation and
research program at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital and St. Louis
University.
Along with the St. Louis Cord Blood Bank, the NMDP partners with 14
of the 20 U.S. public cord blood banks. Another 3 are in the process of
becoming partners. Together, the NMDP and these cord blood banks are
working to increase the national inventory of cord blood available for
transplants and research. Their work helps thousands of Americans with
life-threatening diseases, such as sickle cell anemia.
It is essential that the existing integrated program continue to be
able to operate as it does today. Physicians and patients must be able
to search for and obtain support from a single national registry that
includes cord blood, peripheral blood, and bone marrow. Physicians
should not have to waste time searching multiple cord blood banks and
adult donor registries or having to coordinate the further testing and
delivery of units.
Searching is not the only function that must be integrated.
Physicians need to be confident that the results of their searches
allow them to truly compare cord blood units and adult donor
information. Thus, the cord blood community should work with the
National Program to establish criteria and standards to ensure
consistency of the information that is part of the registry. Finally,
it is important that all patients, not just those who receive a bone
marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplants, receive the patient
advocacy and educational services that the NMDP provides to all the
patients it assists.
The NMDP already provides physicians and their patients with this
type of support. This bill is a step in the right direction because it
builds upon the existing registry. We must be careful not to waste
scarce federal dollars by duplicating what is already working well.
Therefore, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 2520, which
provides for an integrated National Program.
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R.
2520, which combines legislation I introduced and passed in the 108th
Congress to reauthorize the National Bone Marrow Registry with
legislation by my colleague from New Jersey, Mr. Smith to authorize a
federal investment in building an inventory of 150,000 umbilical cord
blood units. This life-saving bill is good for patients, good for
transplant doctors, good for researchers and it represents good policy
for our Nation.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank many colleagues for
bringing this legislation to the floor. Let me thank the Chairman of
the Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Barton for providing the
leadership to advance this important bill. His commitment to providing
sound national policy in this area of stem cell transplantation has
produced an excellent legislative design that will benefit thousands of
patients immediately upon enactment. I would also like to thank my
friend, Mr. Smith of New Jersey for his leadership in the area of
umbilical cord blood--an area of rapidly developing science and
opportunity. His legislation from the previous Congress has provided
the framework for enhancing our Nation's ability to provide cord blood
units to help save lives. His vision on the potential of cord blood has
helped make this bill possible today and I thank him for his
dedication.
This legislation builds on the investment made by Congress 18 years
ago when we established a national bone marrow donor program to save
the lives of patients with leukemia and many other blood disorders.
Countless dedicated doctors, patients, families, and research
scientists have continued to pioneer new approaches to saving lives
using these
[[Page H3808]]
blood stem cells from bone marrow and now umbilical cord blood cells.
This bill authorizes funding for 5 years to continue federal support
for bone marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood
transplantation and research. With this legislation, transplant doctors
and patients will have an enhanced, single point of electronic access
to the full array of information on possible bone marrow matches, as
well as matches with cord blood units from the new national inventory
which would be created. In a matter of minutes, physicians can review
the options and reserve the best possible sources for their patients.
In addition, the new effort will facilitate accreditation of cord blood
banks, stimulate research, and collect and share data on the outcomes
of all transplants.
Last month, at the request of our Appropriations Committee direction,
the Institute of Medicine released its report on cord blood and how the
inventory should be built and integrated into the existing national
registry. This bill before us has been shaped by the guidance provided
through the IOM process and during the past year-and-a-half a consensus
has been building for moving forward to combine our activities in bone
marrow and cord blood. That consensus has formed the basis for this
legislation.
Mr. Speaker, this literally is life saving legislation. Through the
efforts of the National Marrow Donor Program--which this Congress
initiated in 1987--many lives have already been saved. To date, the
Program has facilitated almost 21,000 unrelated transplants involving
bone marrow, cord blood or peripheral blood. That means 21,000
individuals--both children and adults who are otherwise suffering from
terminal disease--received the gift of life through this national
program.
When the program first started, our goal was to build a national
registry of 250,000 individuals willing to donate marrow. Mr. Speaker,
we found that the human spirit responded to our efforts in ways that we
could not imagine. I am proud to say that as of this month, the
National Bone Marrow Registry has more than 5.6 million potential bone
marrow donors signed up. In addition, the Program has an additional
41,666 units of umbilical cord blood in reserve for transplant through
its network of 15 affiliated cord blood banks throughout the country.
Total transplants from all sources for last year alone exceeded 2500.
Let me repeat--we have 5.6 million volunteer bone marrow donors
signed up in the national program. These are true volunteers in every
sense of the word. They have given of their time to take a simple blood
test to be listed in the national registry. For more than 20,000 who
have been called upon to donate bone marrow, they have undergone a
relatively simple surgical procedure to donate their bone marrow to
save the life of a man, woman or child with anyone of more than 85
different diseases. Another 41,000 women have donated umbilical cord
blood which can be used in the same way as bone marrow, to transplant
life giving cells to cure disease.
This legislation will provide the funding to greatly increase the
number of cord blood units that can be collected and stored. Nineteen
million dollars has already been appropriated for this purpose over the
past two years and this legislation will allow that immediate infusion
of funds into building up reserves of umbilical cord blood. The
scientific reason for this is clear. Thanks to research, cord blood has
now become another very important source for obtaining and
transplanting the particular cell found in bone marrow and peripheral
blood that can restore health to those suffering from so many different
diseases. In addition, by building up the cord blood inventory, the
overall resource will be much more likely to meet the needs of patients
from genetically diverse, ethnic populations. It is estimated that
adding 150,000 new cord blood units to the number of existing bone
marrow donors will provide potential cell matches for about 95 percent
of all Americans.
Mr. Speaker, this national effort is a true modern miracle and this
new legislation will reinforce and strengthen the program. Today, our
National Bone Marrow Program is affiliated with 156 transplant centers,
82 donor centers, 15 cord blood banks, 102 transplant marrow collection
centers and 82 Apheresis centers. Of these, 72 are international
facilities.
Having had the great pleasure to meet with hundreds of donors and
patients, I can tell you that donating bone marrow or cord blood can be
a true life-changing experience. The experience of giving life to
another human being is beyond mere words.
Mr. Speaker, there are many people who have been heroes in this
effort and need to be recognized for their contributions. The first is
a little 10 year old girl who died of leukemia at All Children's
Hospital in my home district of St. Petersburg 18 years ago. Brandy Bly
might have been saved from leukemia back in 1987 if matched bone marrow
or cord blood cells had been available. It was during her treatment
that I first learned from doctors how difficult it is to find a
compatible, unrelated bone marrow donor. Her death inspired me, and her
doctor--Dr. Jerry Barbosa--inspired me to help find a way to build a
national bone marrow program. There were other early medical pioneers,
like the late Dr. Robert Goode, Dr. John Hansen and Dr. Donnell
Thomas--all who helped perfect the science of marrow transplantation
and who assisted us in our legislative quest to establish a federal
registry. In the early days, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr. and Dr. Bob
Graves helped find a federal home for the effort. And I must recognize
Navy Captain Bob Hartzman who first connected us with the Navy Medical
Command to give birth to the early program. Dr. Hartzman continues to
direct the military program and is an invaluable scientific leader and
advisor.
There have been many members of Congress, past and present, who have
stood together with me over the years to develop and fund the program
that we reauthorize and enhance today. I thank each and every one for
your dedication.
We must recognize the staff and members of the board of the National
Marrow Donor Program and the Marrow Foundation who have volunteered
their time to establish and grow a finely tuned international registry
program. And we must recognize the dedicated doctors and medical teams
at transplant and donor centers around the nation who use their medical
expertise to perform the transplants and save lives. Dr. Joanne
Kurtzberg, the head transplant doctor at Duke University's blood bank
center, is the epitome of a dedicated, caring and highly knowledgeable
physician who works hard to save lives. We must recognize the
pioneering cord blood research of Dr. Pablo Rubenstein and Dr. Cladd
Stevens at the New York Blood Center, and Dr. Claude Lenfant, the
former director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at NIH
who initiated the major COBLT study on cord blood banking and
transplantation.
The ultimate true heroes of the national effort are the patients and
donors. Every patient who has sought a marrow or cord blood transplant
has helped in the overall effort to gain more scientific knowledge on
perfecting the transplant process. Every patient helps all those who
will follow. And every donor who has rolled up his or her sleeve to
sign up for the national bone marrow program, or every family that has
decided to donate umbilical cord blood, are heroes for taking part in
giving the ultimate gift of life.
Mr. Speaker, in closing let me again thank Chairman Barton and Mr.
Smith for their leadership in enhancing this great national program.
Let me thank every member of this House for their support for the
efforts we started 18 years ago on behalf of patients everywhere. With
your support, we will provide hope--and a second chance at life--to
thousands of patients today and into the future.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, the issue of government funding of embryonic
stem cell research is one of the most divisive issues facing the
country. While I sympathize with those who see embryonic stem cell
research as providing a path to a cure for the dreadful diseases that
have stricken so many Americans, I strongly object to forcing those
Americans who believe embryonic stem cell research is immoral to
subsidize such research with their tax dollars.
The main question that should concern Congress today is does the
United States Government have the constitutional authority to fund any
form of stem cell research. The clear answer to that question is no. A
proper constitutional position would reject federal funding for stem
cell research, while allowing the individual states and private
citizens to decide whether to permit, ban, or fund this research.
Therefore, I will vote against H.R. 810.
Unfortunately, many opponents of embryonic stem cell research are
disregarding the Constitution by supporting H.R. 2520, an
``acceptable'' alternative that funds umbilical-cord stem cell
research. While this approach is much less objectionable than funding
embryonic stem cell research, it is still unconstitutional. Therefore,
I must also oppose H.R. 2520.
Federal funding of medical research guarantees the politicization of
decisions about what types of research for what diseases will be
funded. Thus, scarce resources will be allocated according to who has
the most effective lobby rather than allocated on the basis of need or
even likely success. Federal funding will also cause researchers to
neglect potential treatments and cures that do not qualify for federal
funds. Ironically, an example of this process may be found in H.R.
2520; some research indicates that adult stem cells may be as useful or
more useful to medical science than either embryonic or umbilical cord
stem cells. In fact, the supporters of embryonic stem cell research may
have a point when they question the effectiveness of umbilical cord
stem cells for medical purposes. Yet, if H.R. 2520 becomes law,
researchers will have an incentive to turn away from adult stem cell
[[Page H3809]]
research in order to receive federal funds for umbilical cord stem cell
research!
Mr. Speaker, there is no question that H.R. 810 violates basic
constitutional principles by forcing taxpayers to subsidize embryonic
stem cell research. However, H.R. 2520 also exceeds Congress's
constitutional authority and may even retard effective adult stem cell
research. Therefore, I urge my colleagues to vote against both H.R. 810
and H.R. 2520.
Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2520, an
act that will provide for a nationwide umbilical stem cell
transplantation system. Not only does the implementation of such a
system pave the way for numerous potentially life saving medical
advances, but it builds on an area of study that has a demonstrated
track record of success. Additionally, this legislation reauthorizes
the national bone marrow transplant system, which has been a great
success.
The Twenty-First Century witnessed many great scientific achievements
and medical advances. These advances have helped to cure or mitigate
against a number of formerly terminal conditions and diseases. One can
only imagine the possibilities that modern technology and modern
research offer, which will yield even greater achievements in the near
and distant future. However, we must also be cognizant of ethical
standards to ensure that new technology does not compete with the moral
standards of our society. H.R. 2520 is a good start.
Studies have demonstrated that stem cells found in umbilical cords
may be used to regenerate human nerve, blood, cartilage, skin and
muscle cells. Research also demonstrates that conditions such as
leukemia and sickle cell disease could be cured by more advanced
umbilical cord stem cell research. Cord blood cells are already being
used to treat over 67 diseases. We need to support this research, and
creating a nationwide umbilical stem cell transplantation system is an
important first step to providing scientists with the resources they
need to make advances in this field of study. This database can also be
used to allow potential donors to patients in need of various types of
transplants.
H.R. 2520 provides a vehicle for promoting and enhancing promising
scientific research in the field of umbilical stem cell
transplantation. It certainly meets the highest standards of bioethics
and has a track record of scientific evidence suggesting that investing
taxpayer resources to promote this field of study will result in
positive dividends for the health of our communities. I strongly
support H.R. 2520, and I encourage my colleagues to vote yes for this
important legislation.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 2520.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of
those present have voted in the affirmative.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and
nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be
postponed.
____________________