Washington – Echoing sentiments expressed a day earlier in the House, a prominent GOP senator declared Wednesday that there are enough votes to expand federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research.
“If we can pass this in the House, I really believe we can pass it in the Senate,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said at a news conference by House and Senate Republicans.
Hatch’s remark came a day after Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., said there are enough votes to pass the measure in the House. She co-sponsors the legislation with Rep. Michael Caste, R-Del.
The legislation would surmount President Bush’s edict of Aug. 9, 2001, in which he limited federal funding of embryonic stem- cell research to stem-cell lines created on or before that date. He has not said whether or not he would veto the new bill if it passes.
In talks with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., Hatch said, “I pointed out to him that I believe we can get 60 votes.”
If Frist will not agree to bring the bill to the floor for a vote, there are other ways to get a vote, including attaching it as an amendment to must-pass legislation, such as a funding bill, Hatch said.
“I really believe that Sen. Frist is in a difficult position because he wants to support the White House on this issue,” Hatch said. “He is a medical doctor. He does know … that this is in the interest of science. I can’t speak for him, but I know that he does know that.”
Republicans unveiled ads they plan to run in Washington political newspapers quoting former first lady Nancy Reagan as advocating stem-cell research and urging a positive vote on the Castle-DeGette legislation.
A vote could come anytime in the next few weeks, Castle said Wednesday.
Republicans also presented results of a poll they said show a majority of Republicans favor embryonic stem-cell research. Of 800 registered Republicans surveyed nationwide by the Winston Group, a Republican polling firm, 55 percent favored it and 38 percent opposed. And 69 percent of Republicans supported federal funding of stem cell research, the lawmakers said the poll also showed. Among the funding supporters, 33 percent favored Bush’s approach and 36 percent wanted expanded funding. Another 25 percent said they wanted a policy more limited than Bush’s.
Pollster David Winston said it’s significant that most favor expanded funding.
But Carrie Gordon Earll, a bioethics analyst for the Colorado Springs-based religious group Focus On The Family, said that’s a very misleading way to present those numbers. When you add the group that supports Bush’s position and the group that wants more restrictions, that’s 58 percent of the Republicans who back some type of funding who are “opposing the Castle bill,” she said.
Staff writer Anne C. Mulkern can be reached at 202-662-8907 or amulkern@denverpost.com.
