Senate leader predicts stem cell vote within month

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he hoped to have a vote within a month on the controversial issue of expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Despite President Bush's veto threat, the House last month easily approved legislation to expand federal funding for stem cell research using excess embryos from fertility clinics. Senate backers of the bill say they have a solid bipartisan majority and want a vote soon in the Senate.

Frist, a physician, said he agrees with Bush's 2001 limitations on the research but also said, "It is time, with advancing science, that we review where we are, review not just the president's policy, but where is science today."

Frist said he would not promote research that "crosses certain ethical guidelines."

Frist has not announced a timetable for a vote but said on Wednesday that he anticipates action either in committee or in the full Senate within about a month. He did not specify whether the Senate's starting point would be the House bill or less controversial alternatives that do not use embryos.

"I plan sometime likely in the next month to address it," Frist told reporters.

Oregon Republican Gordon Smith said there has been some discussion among Republicans about a vote by the end of June. Several Democratic aides said they expected a vote soon after the Senate returns from its July 4 recess.

Stem cells have the ability to transform themselves into many other types of cells, offering the potential for regenerating damaged organs or tissue.

Advocates of embryonic stem cell research say it could lead to breakthroughs for numerous debilitating diseases. Foes say it is immoral to destroy a human embryo for research and also charge that the promise of the research has been hyped.

In 2001 Bush allowed federal funding for stem cell research but limited it to 78 stem cell lines that existed as of August 9, 2001. A stem cell line is a reservoir of cells derived from a single human embryo.

- REUTERS