Senate drops stem cell provision; OA likely to pass

The US Senate dropped language from a bill yesterday that would have directed federal money to research on stem cell lines derived before June 15, 2007, the linkurl:Chronicle of Higher Education;http://chronicle.com/news/article/3262/senate-removes-stem-cell-provision-opposed-by-bush-from-spending-bill reported. The move was made in hopes to avert a presidential veto over the stem cell provision. The language was part of a Senate Appropriations Committee budget measure for 2008, proposed in June of this year, which would allow research on 400 lines of stem cells derived in private academic and independent laboratories. The $152 billion spending bill also includes provisions for the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. Word is that the president -- as he has in the linkurl:past;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53063/ -- may still veto the bill, despite the removal of the stem cell language, because of the high level of spending. "We wanted to show that we are willing to compromise," said Sen. Tom Harkin, democrat from Iowa, in a floor statement. "We're willing to try to meet the president halfway." In response to strident federal restrictions on stem cell research, many linkurl:states;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53690/ have engineered funding plans of their own; New Jersey voters will vote whether to borrow $450 million for stem cell research on November 6. The bill, if passed, would also require all research funded by the National Institutes of Health to be open access, as we reported in linkurl:July;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53366/,%22 . "The strengthened NIH open access policy in the Appropriations Bill provides a valuable opportunity to enhance access to the results of biomedical research funded by US taxpayers," Matt Cockerill, the publisher of BioMed Central (a sister company of The Scientist) wrote to me in an Email this morning. Funders around the world have recognized the benefits of open access, he added, and "an open access mandate from NIH, the world's largest biomedical funder, is a natural next step."

Senate drops stem cell provision; OA likely to pass

The Scientist ARCHIVES

Become a Member of

Meet the Author

Andrea Gawrylewski

Related Research Resources

Bunsen Burners and Bad Hair Days

Research Resources

Podcasts

Webinars

Videos

Infographics

eBooks

Meet Honeybun and Breeze Through Viscometry in Formulation Development

Taking the Guesswork Out of Quality Control Standards

PFAS: The Forever Chemicals

Unlocking the Unattainable in Gene Construction

Products

Product News

Atelerix signs exclusive agreement with MineBio to establish distribution channel for non-cryogenic cell preservation solutions in China

Thermo Scientific™ Centrifuges with GreenCool Technology

Singleron Biotechnologies and Hamilton Bonaduz AG Announce the Launch of Tensor to Advance Single Cell Sequencing Automation

Zymo Research Launches Research Grant to Empower Mapping the RNome