According to this story, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) will vote against the bill to overturn President Bush’s policy that restricts federal funding of ESCR to cell lines created before 8/9/01. (Typically, the story gets it wrong by claiming that the bill would “pave the way for federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research,” strongly implying that there currently is none. But as readers of Secondhand Smoke know, in 2005, the NIH gave researchers $50 million for human ESCR.)
If Casey sticks to his guns—and you know that the pressure will be intense to break this campaign promise—the Senate will probably not be able to override President Bush’s expected veto. Bottom line: It looks like the status quo will hold—for now.
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