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Email Alert, November 2, 2001
This
is an update from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC)
regarding U.S. Senate action on issues relating to human embryos.
Pro-abortion Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) is the Senate's chief advocate for federal funding of stem cell research that would require the killing of human embryos. Recently, Specter and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who are respectively the ranking Republican and the chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds health programs, won Appropriations Committee approval of a new provision that would greatly weaken the Dickey Amendment. The Dickey Amendment is a rider to the annual Health and Human Services (HHS) appropriations bill, originally enacted in 1996, that prohibits federal funding of "research in which" human embryos are harmed.
In response to the Specter-Harkin action, on October 30 the White House issued a written threat that "the President's senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill" -- that is, veto the entire massive HHS appropriations bill -- unless the weakening language was dropped.
Earlier this week, as the full Senate prepared to take up the HHS appropriations bill, pro-life Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) said that he wished to offer several embryo-related amendments, including an amendment to ban all human cloning. Specter, in turn, threatened to offer "second-degree" amendments to nullify the Brownback amendments. Since it appeared that the Senate might become tangled up in the embryo-related issues for days or longer, negotiations quickly ensued.
Yesterday (Nov. 1), a deal was struck under which (1) the Specter provision to authorize federal funding of embryo-killing stem cell research was dropped from the HHS bill; (2) Brownback dropped his amendments to the HHS bill; and (3) the Senate will vote on both Brownback legislation on human cloning AND Specter legislation on embryo-killing "stem cell research" next February or March.
This deal is a positive development in two respects. First, the strong response from the White House and Senator Brownback forced Specter and Harkin to temporarily drop their attempt to authorize federal funding of embryo-killing stem cell research. Second, for the first time, Sen. Brownback has an assurance from Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) that the Senate will be permitted to vote on legislation to ban human cloning, and without the many difficulties inherent in trying to enact such a ban as an amendment to the HHS appropriations bill (a bill managed, unfortunately, by two of the Senate's two leading defenders of cloning, Harkin and Specter). The House of Representatives already passed such a ban, the Weldon-Stupak bill (H.R. 2505), on July 31.
Our job now is to work hard to ensure that when the Senate takes up the human cloning issue in a few short months, it votes -- as the House did on July 31 -- to ban the cloning of human embryos. We can be sure that the powerful Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will be spending a lot of money between now and then to try to convince senators and the public that creating human embryos in order to use them in lethal medical research is a good thing.
The news item below, from www.nationalreview.com, provides some additional information on this week's developments:
Washington Bulletin: National Review's Internet Update for
November 1, 2001
http://www.nationalreview.com
By John J. Miller and Ramesh Ponnuru
THE SENATE PUNTS ON CLONING
[But there will be a vote next year.]
The Senate won't pass a bill on cloning or stem cells this year, under an agreement announced today between Majority Leader Tom Daschle, anti-cloning conservative Sam Brownback (R-KS), and embryo-research supporter Arlen Specter (R-PA). The two Republicans had been trying to advance their divergent causes by attaching riders to appropriations bills. Now Daschle has promised each of them a freestanding debate, plus up-or-down votes on their own bills, next February or March. In return, they have agreed not to press their issues onto the budget debate.
"Getting Specter to drop his language is a big victory for us," says Erik Hotmire, a spokesman for Brownback. "We look forward to the debate next year and the opportunity for the whole Senate to debate whether a person can also be a piece of property."
Brownback is seeking bans on human cloning, destructive embryo research, the creation of human-animal hybrids, and germ-line therapy; Specter wants to reverse the Bush administration's prohibitions on stem-cell research.
In a bipartisan vote last July, the House passed a ban on human cloning--and the Senate has faced pressure to take up the issue as well. The issue could have gone away after September 11 but it didn't because neither Brownback nor Specter would let it. House Majority Leader Dick Armey also has demanded action. "Scientists have taken a big step towards creating the world's first cloned monkey and it's feared a cloned human is soon to follow," he said today. "Time is of the essence. This mad science isn't standing still. The Senate shouldn't either. It should act now and decisively pass legislation to ban human cloning."
Now it looks like it will finally have the chance some time in the next six months.
back to Action Alert page
Pro-abortion Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) is the Senate's chief advocate for federal funding of stem cell research that would require the killing of human embryos. Recently, Specter and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who are respectively the ranking Republican and the chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds health programs, won Appropriations Committee approval of a new provision that would greatly weaken the Dickey Amendment. The Dickey Amendment is a rider to the annual Health and Human Services (HHS) appropriations bill, originally enacted in 1996, that prohibits federal funding of "research in which" human embryos are harmed.
In response to the Specter-Harkin action, on October 30 the White House issued a written threat that "the President's senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill" -- that is, veto the entire massive HHS appropriations bill -- unless the weakening language was dropped.
Earlier this week, as the full Senate prepared to take up the HHS appropriations bill, pro-life Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) said that he wished to offer several embryo-related amendments, including an amendment to ban all human cloning. Specter, in turn, threatened to offer "second-degree" amendments to nullify the Brownback amendments. Since it appeared that the Senate might become tangled up in the embryo-related issues for days or longer, negotiations quickly ensued.
Yesterday (Nov. 1), a deal was struck under which (1) the Specter provision to authorize federal funding of embryo-killing stem cell research was dropped from the HHS bill; (2) Brownback dropped his amendments to the HHS bill; and (3) the Senate will vote on both Brownback legislation on human cloning AND Specter legislation on embryo-killing "stem cell research" next February or March.
This deal is a positive development in two respects. First, the strong response from the White House and Senator Brownback forced Specter and Harkin to temporarily drop their attempt to authorize federal funding of embryo-killing stem cell research. Second, for the first time, Sen. Brownback has an assurance from Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) that the Senate will be permitted to vote on legislation to ban human cloning, and without the many difficulties inherent in trying to enact such a ban as an amendment to the HHS appropriations bill (a bill managed, unfortunately, by two of the Senate's two leading defenders of cloning, Harkin and Specter). The House of Representatives already passed such a ban, the Weldon-Stupak bill (H.R. 2505), on July 31.
Our job now is to work hard to ensure that when the Senate takes up the human cloning issue in a few short months, it votes -- as the House did on July 31 -- to ban the cloning of human embryos. We can be sure that the powerful Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will be spending a lot of money between now and then to try to convince senators and the public that creating human embryos in order to use them in lethal medical research is a good thing.
The news item below, from www.nationalreview.com, provides some additional information on this week's developments:
Washington Bulletin: National Review's Internet Update for
November 1, 2001
http://www.nationalreview.com
By John J. Miller and Ramesh Ponnuru
THE SENATE PUNTS ON CLONING
[But there will be a vote next year.]
The Senate won't pass a bill on cloning or stem cells this year, under an agreement announced today between Majority Leader Tom Daschle, anti-cloning conservative Sam Brownback (R-KS), and embryo-research supporter Arlen Specter (R-PA). The two Republicans had been trying to advance their divergent causes by attaching riders to appropriations bills. Now Daschle has promised each of them a freestanding debate, plus up-or-down votes on their own bills, next February or March. In return, they have agreed not to press their issues onto the budget debate.
"Getting Specter to drop his language is a big victory for us," says Erik Hotmire, a spokesman for Brownback. "We look forward to the debate next year and the opportunity for the whole Senate to debate whether a person can also be a piece of property."
Brownback is seeking bans on human cloning, destructive embryo research, the creation of human-animal hybrids, and germ-line therapy; Specter wants to reverse the Bush administration's prohibitions on stem-cell research.
In a bipartisan vote last July, the House passed a ban on human cloning--and the Senate has faced pressure to take up the issue as well. The issue could have gone away after September 11 but it didn't because neither Brownback nor Specter would let it. House Majority Leader Dick Armey also has demanded action. "Scientists have taken a big step towards creating the world's first cloned monkey and it's feared a cloned human is soon to follow," he said today. "Time is of the essence. This mad science isn't standing still. The Senate shouldn't either. It should act now and decisively pass legislation to ban human cloning."
Now it looks like it will finally have the chance some time in the next six months.
back to Action Alert page
© CPLC, State Affiliate of National Right to Life Committee
California ProLife Council, 2306 J Street Ste 200, Sacramento, CA 95816
Phone: (916) 442-8315 e-mail: info@californiaprolife.org