US stem cell bill stalls in Senate

The bill to expand federal funding for stem cell research in the US looks unlikely to come to a vote this week before the summer recess. The bill was passed easily by the House of Representatives in May, and a similar success was expected in the Senate, perhaps with enough support to override President Bush's promised veto.

Currently in the US, public money can only be used to fund embryonic stem cell research on cell lines created before August 2001, even though those lines are less effective, as they are contaminated by the mouse 'feeder' cells that were used to create them. The new legislation would allow funding for research carried out on left-over embryos from IVF which would otherwise be discarded.

Republican Senator Arlen Specter, one of the sponsors of the bill, is blaming Majority Leader Bill Frist's last minute 'stalking-horse alternatives' for the delay. Six other stem cell bills, proposing 'alternatives' to ES cells have been introduced, which supporters of the bill claim are attempts to confuse the issue and draw support away from the main bill. 'I think there has been an effort to obfuscate the House-passed bill with a collection of other bills', said Senator Diane Feinstein, a Democrat and leading advocate of the research.

Specter is now threatening to try a different tactic to get the legislation through. If the vote does not happen this week, he may add the wording to the appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As chairman of the sub-committee overseeing HHS appropriations, Specter is in a position to add the stalled bill as an amendment. 'I don't like to put it on an appropriations bill, but we waited long enough', he told reporters in Washington.

Frist's aides have said that the Senator is still committed to his promise to bring the bill to a vote, but have admitted that it is unlikely to happen before the break.