The President is expected to veto the recently passed Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act next Monday and the bill's advocates are prepared. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) will attach the legislation to an appropriations bill, which must be passed every year.
The bill Harkin is focusing on is the Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations Act, which provides funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), among other items. Given President Bush's recent trend of flat-lining the NIH budget, I doubt he will give a second thought to vetoing the new legislation.
I placed a call in to the White House yesterday to see if the President has plans to modify his original executive order along with the veto, but haven't received a return call. I don't expect to receive a response, and here's why.
When the House of Representatives first passed the stem-cell bill this year, I called the White House and spoke to spokesman Tony Fratto. He rattled off the standard "The President will veto the legislation," but I pressed him further to ask if the veto would be accompanied by a modification of his original executive order limiting stem-cell research to maybe encourage research at the NIH on ways of obtaining embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos.
Fratto was confused, so I quickly explained the theory of dedifferentiation/cellular reprogramming to create embryonic stem cells and he responded with "I'm not going to negotiate with you on this." I was shocked, thinking that my question -- Is Bush going to respond with more than a veto? -- was rather simple. The explanation I provided was just to give him an example of what I meant, but he probably has me pegged as someone to avoid because I expected an answer beyond the standard six word response.
Harkin to Tie Stem Cell Research to Spending Bill [The Hill]
