Healthcare

I urge the U.S. Senate to realize the great potential of embryonic stem cell research and vote yes to pass H.R. 810 today for the millions of patients who could potentially be saved from the live-saving research. The next obstacle is the President and many of my efforts the past couple of weeks have been to force him to reconsider his veto threat on this critical legislation. It is my hope that we can help him see what the majority of his American citizens see, which is the most promising cure for the many diseases that afflict 1 out of every 3 American.

For too long, this federal health research effort has been operating with one hand tied behind its back.  Scientists have been prohibited from doing new stem cell research.  Five years ago, the President restricted federal funding for embryonic stem cell research in the most narrow way.  The President's decision created an enormous loophole for researchers in private, profit making firms in an unregulated atmosphere.  The result was federally funded stem cell research was halted almost entirely.  Stem cell research was conducted by private entities with no federal bioethical standards.  This legislation will remove the restrictions imposed by the Bush Administration that have effectively stopped this research.  This legislation provides the ethical and medical framework for federally funded stem cell research.

This legislation allows for sound science and sound ethics.  It creates strong ethical guidelines for expanded federal stem cell research.  This will ensure that research is conducted within a rigorous ethical framework providing transparency and public accountability.  This legislation expands scientists' access to stem cell lines that are currently off-limits to federal funding now.  Under the President's current restrictions, it will create a strong national framework that will advance the science of stem cell research.  This legislation allows for the national collaboration that is necessary to promote advancement in research that is being done across the country and around the world.

I am on the side of cures and research and I am proud to support stem cell research that will save lives.  There must be strong federal support for embryonic stem cell research with federal scrutiny, regulation and transparency that provides the sound ethical framework that supports the best science and research to find the cures that will save lives.

Yesterday marked the beginning of a renewed debate over stem cell research that I hope will allow my colleagues to engage in thoughtful deliberation over an issue in which much has been promised and yet much is still misunderstood.

Last summer I announced that I support expanding the number of stem cell lines currently available for federal funding. Since the federal policy regarding stem cell research was established in 2001, we’ve found that of the 78 stem cell lines promised only 22 lines currently exist. As these limited lines deteriorate, we lose the ability to harness their potential. That is why I believe we must modify our current policy and expand the number of stem cell lines. We can do so without changing our principles for protecting life.

There are three bills currently before the Senate: S.3504, the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act; S.2754, the Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act; and H.R.810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. Passage of these measures will help spur the next leap forward in stem cell research within clearly defined moral and ethical boundaries that respect both the sanctity of human life and the potential of modern science.

As we move toward votes in the Senate today, I caution us not to over sell advances being made in stem cell research. Biomedical science is constantly evolving, and much basic research remains before we can expect clinical trials and possible treatments. Stem cell research presents one of the first major moral and ethical dilemmas to biomedical research in the 21st century and there is a natural inclination to avoid the difficult debate. However, if we don’t participate in defining research surrounding the culture of life, it will define us.

We all support including a drug benefit in Medicare - but it must be affordable. In crafting this benefit, the Republicans had a choice: they could allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices like the VA does, or they could shift costs to seniors and people with disabilities. They chose to side with the drug companies. That's why seniors and disabled people are confronting the doughnut hole - something not seen in any other public or private policy. A gap in coverage that leaves them to pay thousands of dollars on their own - all the while paying premiums for a benefit they are not receiving.

And they will fall into the doughnut hole every year - not just the first year. 85% of plans have a donut hole. Only 15% -- the ones with the highest premiums - don't. The average senior will fall into the doughnut hole on Friday, September 22. It won't be Friday the 13th but it will be a day of enormous bad luck for those whose monthly incomes are simply not enough to pay a premium plus 100 percent of all their drug costs. It will be a day of not of eager anticipation but of dread - since many senior citizens and people with disabilities have friends who have already fallen into the donut hole. Unfortunately, the first time those in the doughnut hole will realize their insurance company has abandoned them is when they go to the pharmacy - prepared to pay their copay only to find out they are on the hook for the entire cost.

My constituents, David and Marcella Crown, wrote to me about their experience. They wanted to know why, with the USA being the "world's wealthiest nation," they got handed a donut hole even after they felt they had been forced to enroll in order to avoid late enrollment penalties. This drug plan was already needlessly expensive before the doughnut hole hit. Dave and Sharyn Madison from Denver paid $1,307 under the plan for Dave's oral chemotherapy drug. They thought that was expensive, until they hit the doughnut hole and their monthly co-pay more than doubled to $2,587 for that one drug.

Marion Berry and I think we can do better. Our bill, H.R. 752, the Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act, would take a new direction by siding with seniors, not the drug companies. We would let seniors and disabled people enroll in a Medicare-administered drug benefit. We would force drug companies to lower their prices by requiring that Medicare negotiate for deep discounts, like the VA. And we would fill in the doughnut hole with the savings.

HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, is the one bill that, at long last, will unleash some of the most exciting and promising biomedical research of modern times.
But it’s not just us members of Congress who are saying that.  Last week, Senator Specter and I sent a letter to the National Institutes of Health, asking their top scientists for their thoughts on stem cell research.  Every single one of them said that embryonic stem cell research offers enormous potential.
Here’s what Dr. Elias Zerhouni, the NIH director, said:  “Embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for treating, curing, and improving our understanding of disease.

It is morally reprehensible and scientifically unnecessary to kill human embryos to provide raw fodder for scientific research. Unlike H.R. 810 which is morally unacceptable to me and millions of other Americans, the Bartlett/Santorum bill (H.R. 5526/S.2754) represents common ground into promising ways the federal government can support pluripotent stem cell research without sacrificing life for medicine.

Last month, Representative Mike Castle (R-DE) and I formally requested a meeting with President Bush to discuss our Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R. 810). This bill would expand current federal embryonic stem cell research policy and create an ethical framework for conducting this research, which could hold the cure to such diseases as Alzheimer's and diabetes. Unfortunately the President sent us a letter denying our request yesterday.

And while it's regrettable that President Bush will not grant us the common courtesy of a meeting, it's just insulting that he sent his head political advisor to my hometown with a veto threat. Earlier this week, Karl Rove met with the Denver Post editorial board and announced that President Bush will veto H.R. 810 if it passes th U.S. Senate. This research is far too important to let Rove turn into a wedge issue like flag burning or gay marriage.

I would still welcome the chance to sit down with the President and talk to him about the mistake of making his first veto a bill which would help 100 million Americans and their families. This issue should be above politics and certainly above Karl Rove's cynical electoral strategy.

On June 29, Senate leaders from both parties agreed to schedule a vote on H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which would lift President Bush’s restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. The majority of the American people support this bill. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed it. A majority of the Senate supports it as well. The urgency of this vote cannot be overstated. People are dying from diseases and medical conditions that might be cured through embryonic stem cell research. For these people, every month matters.

Yesterday's announcement by Senator Frist regarding the Senate Unanimous Consent Agreement on the embryonic stem cell debate, which includes my legislation, H.R. 810, was a significant development for the millions of patients affected by diseases that could potentially be treated by stem cell science. I look forward to a fascinating debate from the Senate at the earliest possible date so that we can hopefully move this crucial legislation forward.

The idea that women-many of which are so young-could be sexually assaulted and fail to get the treatment and services they need to get on the road to recovery is not only heartbreaking - it is devastating.  Those most likely to be raped or sexually assaulted are young women between the ages of 16 and 24 - young women with their whole lives ahead of them, with dreams and aspirations.  Regardless of treatment, this one act of violence will alter their lives forever.  But absent proper treatment and counseling in a timely manner, it could destroy any possibility of a healthy life.  Without the funding, this Congress will have failed millions of women - women who cannot afford to wait.