[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 163 (Saturday, December 17, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13960-S13963]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 STEM CELL THERAPEUTIC AND RESEARCH ACT

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise to speak on the Stem Cell 
Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005, which would establish a national 
cord blood stem cell bank. This legislation was agreed to last night 
during wrap-up under unanimous consent.
  I would like to congratulate the majority leader and all parties 
involved in yesterday's achievement, which resulted in passage of the 
cord blood bill. As you will recall, it was just 2 days ago that the 
other side, through the junior Senator from Iowa, reaffirmed their 
objections to consideration of this important legislation.
  Their objections, it seems, were not substantive as this legislation 
has been championed by Members from both sides of the aisle and as 
further evidenced by the lifting of objections and

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the cord blood bill passing without any opposition. Passage without any 
opposition in the Senate is truly rare. Rather, the other side's 
objections were tied to their support for additional funding of highly 
controversial destructive human embryonic stem cell research, which 
despite sufficient funding and years of research has yet to cure--or 
even treat--one human patient yet.
  Clearly, the other side wants a vote on their embryonic stem cell 
legislation, which requires the destruction of young human lives. On 
the other hand, I and many of my colleagues would also like for us to 
have an up-or-down vote on the Human Cloning Prohibition Act or the 
Human Chimera Prohibition Act, but we have been denied this by the 
other side. There will be a time for a vigorous debate on all of these 
issues next year, and I look forward to engaging in that debate.
  However, ethical, noncontroversial cord blood stem cell research 
should not have been made the political football that it was for the 
intervening months between House passage of the bill in May and 
yesterday's action in the Senate. Once again, I would like to commend 
all of my colleagues for depoliticizing the issue of cord blood. 
Patients will be benefited almost immediately, and, yes, more kids' 
lives will be saved because we passed this bill yesterday, rather than 
sometime next year. I applaud the other side for recognizing this fact.
  Yesterday, the junior Senator from Iowa took to the floor and 
challenged my statement from Thursday evening that ``more kids will die 
if we don't take up the cord blood bill.'' I would merely like to spend 
a few minutes highlighting the truth of my statement.
  Cord blood stem cell research involves the blood from human umbilical 
cords. Cord blood contains a high number of pluripotent stem cells; and 
it is currently treating real people and saving many lives.
  Contemplation of cord blood stem cell's therapeutic power is 
something that many in my office are currently contemplating, as at 
least five staff members or their spouses are expecting babies right 
now. We even thought that one of them was coming a few nights ago, but 
it was a false alarm.
  Unlike human embryonic stem cells, which require the destruction of 
young human beings, umbilical cord blood stem cells are completely 
ethical as their derivation and use results in no harm to any human 
beings. Cord blood has incredible therapeutic power.
  To better harness the power of cord blood, thereby saving more lives, 
the cord blood bill that passed last night was essential. While I had 
worked closely with Senator Specter in channeling appropriation funds 
to establish a national cord blood stem cell bank, without the 
authorizing legislation, which we passed last night, these funds did 
not have the necessary structure to be effective.
  However, should the House send the bill to the President tonight--as 
we expect--a structure will go into effect that will immediately begin 
collecting cord blood units and making them available to Americans 
suffering from a variety of diseases from blood cancers to neurological 
diseases. Without the structure that cord blood bill provides, many 
fewer patients will benefit and some waiting on cord blood will die.
  To highlight this, I will share a few stories of real people who have 
been successfully treated with cord blood stem cells.
  The first story is of Keone Penn, a young man cured of sickle cell 
anemia a disease that afflicts more than 70,000 Americans, particularly 
African Americans. Keone, of course, tells his story the best; so 
listen to his testimony before a Senate Science Subcommittee hearing 
that I chaired on June 12, 2003:

       My name is Keone Penn. Two days ago, I turned 17 years old. 
     Five years ago, they said I wouldn't live to be 17. They said 
     I'd be dead within 5 years. I was born with sickle cell 
     anemia. Sickle cell is a very bad disease. I had a stroke 
     when I was 5 years old. Things got even worse after that. My 
     life has been full of pain crises, blood transfusions every 
     two weeks, and more times in the hospital than I can count. 
     The year before I had my stem cell transplant, I was in the 
     hospital 13 times. I never was able to have a normal life. My 
     stem cell transplant was not easy, but I thank God that I'm 
     still here. I will graduate from high school this year. I 
     want to become a chef because I love to cook. I think I'm 
     pretty good at it. Sickle cell is now a part of my past. One 
     year after my transplant, I was pronounced cured. Stem cells 
     saved my life.

  It is important to realize though that cord blood treats many other 
diseases. Consider the story of Erik Haines, who received a successful 
cord blood stem cell transplant to treat Krabbe disease. Krabbe disease 
is an often fatal neurological disease. This helps to illustrate how 
broadly effective cord blood stem cells really are.
  Erik Haines made medical history at age 2 when he became one of the 
first cord blood transplant patients at the University of Minnesota on 
July 24, 1994. Erik had suffered from the genetic blood disorder Krabbe 
disease, from which his younger brother Adam died. Since his umbilical 
cord blood transplant, annual exams at the University of Minnesota are 
not full of foreboding or anxiety; and check-ups with Erik's 
pediatrician likewise seem routine. Also, like many boys, Erik enjoys 
baseball, soccer, and swimming. Erik's father Paul Haines says:

       The only real lasting effects are complications from the 
     radiation he received--small cataracts. He wears glasses and 
     has a little trouble seeing the board from the back of the 
     room.

  Both Keone and Erik's treatments took place in the 1990s, and cord 
blood stem cell research has made even greater progress since then. We 
learn of new, exciting developments every month.
  Just 2 weeks ago, we heard about this on local DC television 
stations.
  On November 30, 2005, two local DC TV stations reported on separate 
life saving cures emerging from umbilical cord blood stem cells. 
Channel 7 focused on the Korean cord blood stem cell treatment for 
spinal cord injury and the procedure's first U.S. patient, a Virginia 
woman.
  Channel 4 highlighted two children in a local family--Riverdale, MD--
cured of SCIDS--severe combined immune deficiency syndrome--also known 
as ``bubble boy disease'' by cord blood from unrelated donors.
  And on October 23, 2005, the Chicago Tribune reported:

       Cord blood is surprising researchers with previously 
     unrecognized healing powers that go far beyond its known 
     effectiveness against childhood leukemia and some other 
     disorders. Early research in animals suggests that cord blood 
     may provide a new bounty of cures and treatments for many 
     other medical conditions, including heart attack, Parkinson's 
     disease, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, muscular dystrophy, 
     diabetes, spinal cord injury and amyotrophic lateral 
     sclerosis . . . In May, the New England Journal of Medicine 
     published a study showing that a cord blood transplant 
     performed as soon as possible after birth can, for the first 
     time, stop the deadly course of Krabbe disease.

  There are thousands of testimonies of the efficaciousness of cord 
blood stem cells. There are also innumerable new stories and medical 
journal articles on amazing advances in disease treatments in real 
human patients with cord blood stem cells.
  There are more than ample, documented medical articles, on which I 
base my claim that because the Senate acted and passed the cord blood 
bill this week, more kids' lives will be saved.
  As for speculative, destructive, human embryonic stem cell research, 
there is not yet even one patient trial with embryonic stem cells for 
any disease; and it is not for lack of years of research, 
prohibitions--there are none--or lack of funding. It is because 
embryonic stem cells form cancers and tumors due to their immature 
state. Regarding destructive human embryonic stem cell research, even 
the prestigious journal Science acknowledged on June 17, 2005, that:

       It is nearly certain that the clinical benefits of the 
     research are years or decades away. This is a message that 
     desperate families and patients will not want to hear.

  With last night's passage of the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research 
Act, the Senate formally recognized the lifesaving value of cord blood 
stem cell research. I have worked closely with Senator Specter over the 
past few years to appropriate nearly $20 million for the purpose of 
establishing a national cord blood bank. And I am proud to be an 
original cosponsor of the bipartisan legislation that passed out of 
this chamber last night.
  I am also proud that we were able to move in a bipartisan manner on 
this legislation. Working alongside Senators Hatch, Dodd, Specter, 
Harkin, Enzi, and Frist on this issue was a

[[Page S13962]]

pleasure and helps to demonstrate that the two parties can work 
together effectively.
  Everybody wins with cord blood stem cell research. Patients win 
because they receive successful treatments and cures. Human dignity 
wins because cord blood stem cell research respects all human life and 
does not kill the young human embryo, as is the case with human-
destructive embryonic stem cell research.
  Cord blood doesn't just hold promise. Cord blood is producing real 
treatments and even real cures for a variety of maladies afflicting 
real people right now. Passage of this bill should be celebrated, and I 
commend my colleagues for this wonderful achievement.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I want to congratulate Chairman Specter 
and Chairman Roberts for their extraordinary work in forging a 
conference report on the reauthorization of certain provisions of the 
USA PATRIOT Act. I remain disappointed that many concessions were made 
to minority members of the conference which not only did not result in 
their support of the conference report but which, in my judgment, are 
unwise on the merits.
  On November 17, I wrote to the conferees identifying some of these 
unwise concessions. They included: a three-part test for relevance in 
section 215; additional reporting requirements and inspector general 
audit provisions; sunsetting the ``lone-wolf'' wolf FISA warrant 
provisions; thirty day initial limit on delayed notice search warrants; 
applying minimization provisions to subpoenas; and the deletion of 
important death penalty provisions which were contained in the House 
version.
  In my letter, I urged that no further concessions be made. Yet 
further concessions were made. These additional concessions include 
stripping a criminal penalty of up to 1 year imprisonment for a knowing 
and willful violation of the nondisclosure provision of national 
security letters. This makes a mockery of the nondisclosure provision 
itself.
  Despite these significant accommodations which were made in the 
interest of bipartisan compromise, I am distressed to learn that, even 
now, certain of my colleagues are not only still opposing this bill, 
but are urging further delay, further compromise, and further weakening 
of the bill. This effort should be soundly rejected by this body. 
However, should there be a delay, and the opportunity for additional 
changes to the conference report, I will urge that we revisit these 
ill-advised concessions already made and that they be deleted from the 
bill. That said, I hope that we do not go down that road. I hope that 
both sides will rise above our particular preferences for a perfect 
bill, and vote for the good of the Nation and its citizens who have 
been protected by this historic legislation for the last 5 years.
  I am also disappointed that certain of my colleagues have seen fit to 
oppose the conference report over a single issue--the appropriate 
standard of judicial review of the national security letters 
nondisclosure provisions. These opponents would ask courts to assess 
potential damage to national security rather than the officials in our 
Government in the intelligence and diplomatic community who are the 
only ones capable of making such determinations based on all available 
intelligence and investigative information.
  While I am not pleased with every provision of this final bill, some 
of which I have just reviewed, on balance I am satisfied that overall 
the final language agreed to represents a reaffirmation of the Nation's 
commitment to modernization of our criminal and intelligence 
investigative laws and commonsense law enforcement
  The USA PATRIOT Act provisions, which Congress wisely passed 
following the terrorist attacks on our soil and the callous murder of 
innocent civilians, have stood the test of time. The act's provisions 
have helped to keep us safe and to protect our liberties which were 
jeopardized, not by expanded governmental authority, but by violent 
attacks against our way of life by terrorists.
  Those who urge further changes and further weakening are, in my 
judgment, playing a dangerous political game, intended or not, at the 
expense of our national security and our personal liberties--liberties 
protected by the commonsense provisions of the PATRIOT Act. Provisions 
of the act have been utilized to accomplish amazing victories in the 
war on terrorism and to keep us safe and free. Let me highlight just a 
few from information provided by the Department of Justice:
  The Department of Justice successfully dismantled a Portland, OR, 
terror cell known as the ``Portland Seven.'' Members of this terror 
cell had attempted to travel to Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 to take up 
arms with the Taliban and al-Qaida against United States and coalition 
forces fighting there. The USA PATRIOT Act information-sharing 
provisions were critical in taking down the Portland cell.
  The Department of Justice successfully convicted members of an al-
Qaida cell in Lackawanna, NY, that involved several residents of 
Lackawanna who traveled to Afghanistan in 2001 to receive training at 
an al-Qaida-affiliated camp near Kandahar. Five of the Lackawanna Six 
pleaded guilty to providing material support to al-Qaida, and the sixth 
pleaded guilty to conducting transactions unlawfully with al-Qaida. 
The USA PATRIOT Act information-sharing and national security letter 
provisions were critical to this case.

  The Department of Justice successfully prosecuted the so-called 
Virginia Jihad case involving members of the Dar al-Arqam Islamic 
Center, who trained for jihad in Northern Virginia, including eight 
individuals who traveled to terrorist training camps in Pakistan or 
Afghanistan between 1999 and 2001. Six of the defendants have pleaded 
guilty and three were convicted in March 2004 of charges including 
conspiracy to levy war against the United States and conspiracy to 
provide material support to the Taliban. The USA PATRIOT Act was 
critical to this case.
  In May of 2003, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was arrested after having sought 
out and joined an al-Qaida cell in Medina, Saudi Arabia, where he 
received training in weapons, explosives, and document forgery. He, 
along with other members of the cell, began to develop plans for 
several potential terrorist attacks against the United States, 
including a plot to assassinate President Bush. Abu Ali was recently 
convicted in Federal district court.
  On November 23, 2005, Uzair Paracha was convicted in New York of all 
five counts in an indictment that included charges of conspiracy and 
providing material support to al-Qaida. Paracha traveled to the United 
States in February 2003 to assist al-Qaida, including posing as a 
person Paracha knew to be an al-Qaida associate, obtaining immigration 
documents that would permit that al-Qaida member to enter the United 
States, and conducting financial transactions involving the al-Qaida 
associate's bank accounts.
  The Department of Justice also indicted Mohammed Junaid Babar for 
material support of al-Qaida after he arranged for a month-long jihadi 
training camp, at which attendees received training in basic military 
skills, explosives and weapons. Among the attendees were individuals 
who were plotting to bomb targets abroad. Babar pleaded guilty to 
providing material support, among other charges, and cooperated with 
ongoing investigations.
  New York defense attorney Lynne Stewart, Mohammed Yousry, and Ahmed 
Abdel Sattar were recently convicted by a jury of material support 
charges in connection with passing messages to a terrorist 
organization, known as the Islamic Group, from Sheik Abdel Rahman, the 
Islamic Group's imprisoned leader. Abdel-Rahman is serving a life 
sentence plus 65 years for his role in terrorist activities, including 
the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Sattar was also convicted 
of conspiring to kill persons in a foreign country and for solicitation 
of crimes of violence.
  On October 24, 2005, the Department of Justice announced the historic 
extradition of the notorious Taliban-linked narcoterrorist Baz 
Mohammad. Mohammad has been indicted for allegedly manufacturing and 
distributing tens of millions of dollars worth of heroin in Afghanistan 
and Pakistan. He was closely aligned with the Taliban and other 
Islamic-extremist groups in Afghanistan, providing financial support to 
the Taliban with proceeds from heroin sales in the United States.

[[Page S13963]]

  John Walker Lindh, the ``American Taliban'' captured on the 
battlefield in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty to supporting the Taliban 
and has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. As part of his plea 
agreement, Lindh has provided information about training camps and 
fighting in Afghanistan.
  Another potentially devastating attack was averted when Richard Reid, 
the so-called shoe bomber, was foiled in his attempt to detonate a bomb 
on American Airlines flight 63 during flight. Reid was charged as a 
trained terrorist for this attempted terrorist attack. He pled guilty 
to all charges and was sentenced to life imprisonment on January 30, 
2003.
  The Department of Justice successfully detected and disrupted 
sinister plans in Lodi, CA. Hamid Hayat was indicted and charged with 
material support to terrorists after he allegedly attended a terrorist 
training camp in Pakistan in 2004 and returned to this country with the 
intent of committing jihad against America. Additional associates have 
been deported and one charged with two counts of lying to Federal 
agents.
  In United States v. Odeh, a naroterrorism case, investigators used a 
court-issued delayed-notice search warrant to search an envelope mailed 
to a target of the investigation. The search confirmed that the target 
was operating an illegal money exchange to funnel money to the Middle 
East, including to an associate of an apparent Islamic Jihad operative 
in Israel. The delayed-notice provision allowed investigators to 
conduct the search without compromising an ongoing wiretap on the 
target and several confederates.
  The information sharing between intelligence and law enforcement 
personnel made possible by USA PATRIOT Act section 218 was useful in 
the investigation of two Yemeni citizens, Mohammed Ali Hasan Al-Moayad 
and Mohshen Yahya Zayed, who were charged in 2003 with conspiring to 
provide material support to al-Qaida and Hamas. Following their 
indictment, Al-Moayad and Zayed were extradited to the United States 
from Germany, and both were convicted in March 2005 of conspiring to 
provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
  The Department of Justice used USA PATRIOT Act section 218 to gain 
access to intelligence that facilitated the indictment of Enaam Amaout, 
the executive director of the Illinois-based Benevolence International 
Foundation, BIF. Arnaout had a long-standing relationship with Osama 
bin Laden and used his charity organization both to obtain funds 
illicitly from unsuspecting Americans for terrorist organizations, such 
as al-Qaida, and to serve as a channel for people to contribute money 
knowingly to such groups. Arnaout ultimately pleaded guilty to a 
racketeering charge, admitting that he diverted thousands of dollars 
from BIF to support Islamic militant groups in Bosnia and Chechnya. He 
was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.
  The broader information sharing made possible by USA PATRIOT Act 
section 218 also assisted the prosecution in San Diego of several 
persons involved in an al-Qaida drugs-for-weapons plot, which 
culminated in two guilty pleas. Two defendants, Muhamed Abid Afridi and 
Ilyas Ali, admitted that they conspired to distribute approximately 
five metric tons of hashish and 600 kilograms of heroin originating in 
Pakistan to undercover U.S. law enforcement officers. Additionally, 
they admitted that they conspired to receive, as partial payment for 
the drugs, four Stinger anti-aircraft missiles that they then intended 
to sell to the Taliban, an organization they knew at the time to be 
affiliated with al-Qaida. Afridi and Ali pleaded guilty to the felony 
charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and 
conspiracy to distribute heroin and hashish. The lead defendant in the 
case is currently awaiting trial.
  Section 218 of the PATRIOT Act was critical in the successful 
prosecution of Khaled Abdel Latif Dumeisi, who was convicted by a jury 
in January 2004 of illegally acting as an agent of the former 
government of Iraq as well as two counts of perjury. Before the gulf 
war, Dumeisi passed information on Iraqi opposition members located in 
the United States to officers of the Iraqi Intelligence Service 
stationed in the Iraqi mission to the United Nations. During this 
investigation, intelligence agents conducting surveillance of Dumeisi 
pursuant to FISA coordinated and shared information with law 
enforcement agents and prosecutors investigating Dumeisi for possible 
criminal violations. Because of this coordination, law enforcement 
agents and prosecutors learned from intelligence agents of an 
incriminating telephone conversation that took place in April 2003 
between Dumeisi and a coconspirator. This phone conversation 
corroborated other evidence that Dumeisi was acting as an agent of the 
Iraqi government and provided a compelling piece of evidence at his 
trial.
  The use of cigarette smuggling to fund terrorism has been of grave 
concern. On January 23, 2003, in United States v. Akhdar, et al., the 
Department of Justice indicted members of an organization that smuggled 
low-taxed and untaxed cigarettes from State to State to evade sales 
tax. The defendants produced counterfeit tax stamps, obtained 
counterfeit credit cards, laundered money, obstructed justice, and 
committed arson, and many are suspected of having links to and 
financing the terrorist organization Hizballah. As the investigation 
has continued, additional indictments have been filed, and many 
defendants have pleaded guilty to charges including RICO violations and 
material support.
  Investigators have also been able to avert potentially devastating 
attacks on our children. Ahmed Hassan al-Uqaily, an Iraqi national, 
spoke of ``going jihad,'' and arranged to procure pistols, machine 
guns, grenades and a ``tank missile,'' while suggesting he might target 
several Jewish schools in the Nashville area. An undercover agent 
completed the deal, posing as the weapons supplier, and the Iraqi 
national agreed to pay $1,000 for two machine guns, ammunition and 
inert grenade components. The aspiring terrorist was arrested on 
October 7, 2004, and was sentenced on October 24, 2005, to 57 months in 
prison.
  The PATRIOT Act has kept us free and kept us safe, and is doing so 
day in and day out. It is essential that this Congress renew this 
historic legislation and I urge my colleagues to support the bill. We 
owe no less to the future generations of Americans and the freedom-
loving peoples of the world. The stakes are too high to ignore our 
obligation.

                          ____________________