Representative Castle Affirms Plan to Reintroduce H.R. 810 in 2007

Representative Michael N. Castle (R-Del.) has reaffirmed his intent to introduce vetoed legislation next year to expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, but said that the Bush administration will continue to be the biggest obstacle in moving the bill forward.

Representative Castle was the author and primary Republican House sponsor of H.R. 810, a bill that would have allowed discarded embryos from in vitro fertilization clinics to be used in federally funded research, lifting a White House restriction on funding for study of embryos created after the policy was announced in 2001. The bill passed both the House and Senate, but President Bush vetoed H.R. 810 within days after it reached his desk, the only veto of his presidency so far.

Representative Castle is also considering adding language for a system of regulatory oversight of embryonic stem cell research, similar to Britain's. However, he said, that could make the bill too complicated.

"The harder question is what to do with the White House," he said, adding that White House policy advisers rejected all proposed compromises, such as moving the cutoff date for eligible embryonic stem cells from 2001 to 2006.

All the likely presidential candidates for 2008 voted for H.R. 810, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who broke with the Bush administration in 2005 by announcing his support for the bill, along with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), and Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-Del.).

Representative Castle predicts that enactment of the legislation will happen in the first six months of a new presidency.

As part of the Senate agreement that brought the bill to the floor, the bill cannot be reintroduced this year. However, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has said that he and co-sponsor Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) plan to introduce the bill the first day that the Senate reconvenes in January 2007.