House OKs stem-cell legislation; Bush promises veto

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would loosen the restrictions on human embryonic stem-cell research imposed by President Bush in 2001, the second such assault on the administration's stem-cell policy in as many years.

Thirty-seven Republicans joined 216 Democrats to pass the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which would allow federal funding of research on stem cells from embryos slated for destruction at fertility clinics.

The 253-174 vote fell 37 votes short of what it would take to override the veto that Bush promised would be forthcoming, assuming the Senate passes the same bill, as expected. Bush vetoed the legislation after it passed last year.

Republican Rep. Dave Reichert joined the Democratic members of the Washington state delegation in voting for the bill. Republicans Doc Hastings and Cathy McMorris Rodgers voted against it.

Research proponents promised to persevere until the legislation becomes law.

"While [the number of votes is] not enough to override a veto, it's enough to show we have tremendous momentum," said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., who led the House effort with Rep. Michael Castle, R-Del.

With the Senate already within one vote of having the two-thirds majority it needs for an override, and with the Democrats in a majority position that will allow them to use procedural rules in their favor, DeGette suggested it is time for the president to begin negotiating with Congress over compromise language.

"The vote today shows that productive discussions might be a very, very good idea for all concerned," she said.

Under the existing policy, federal money may be used to study only those stem cells taken from embryos destroyed by Aug. 9, 2001 — or about 21 of the nearly 400 stem-cell colonies created since 1998.

The House-based bill would expand that pool of available cells to include those from any of the thousands of embryos that are discarded by fertility clinics each year, as long as those cells were freely donated for research by the parents. It would also impose some of the country's first ethics rules on embryo research.

The vote came after about three hours of impassioned speeches by members on both sides of the issue.

Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., warned that passage would lead to a "slippery slope." Before long, he said, scientists would routinely be creating human embryos "for the express purpose of killing that embryo" for research.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., touting his credentials as a former research scientist who studied human embryology, spoke up for alternative methods of getting stem cells — methods that virtually all leading stem-cell scientists have discounted as having uncertain value. "The assumption by many people that you have to kill human embryos to get embryonic stem cells just isn't true," Bartlett said.

On the other side, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., warned that if Congress does not override a Bush veto this time, "this will be remembered as a Luddite moment in American history, where fear triumphed over hope and ideology triumphed over science."

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., wondered aloud — not seriously, he assured — whether those voting against the bill would be willing to waive their right to access the cures that would come from the work.

Senate leaders have said they plan to take up the bill next month.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.