Frist Revives Stem Cell Funding Bill
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on Thursday revived a bill to expand funding for embryonic stem cell research after conservatives who had blocked it withdrew their objections.
“It’s my intention, now that we’ve gotten over this first hurdle, that we will [vote on the bill] in the not-too-distant future,†Frist said as he brought the three-bill package to the floor.
Frist said the vote would occur before the Senate break in October.
The announcement marked a major advance for a bill that had stalled in the Senate since the House passed it in May 2005.
President Bush remains opposed to the legislation and has said he will veto it.
The bill would permit the government to pay for human embryonic stem cell research, a science that carries promise in the hunt for cures to diseases that afflict millions of people.
Social conservatives liken the research to abortion because the process of extracting stem cells from an embryo results in its death.
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