Washington - U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today reiterated his support for the hope and promise offered by stem cell research and called on Republican Senators to stop playing politics with the lives of so many Americans. The New Jersey lawmaker delivered his remarks on the Senate floor before the pending vote on the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, a bill Menendez supported in the U.S. House of Representatives. President Bush has threatened to veto the legislation.
Millions of Americans, just like my family, are waiting in hope that we will do the right thing, Menendez said. President Bush and other opponents of this legislation know all too well the overwhelming public support for this promising research, but they still cant bring themselves to stand up for the peoples interests over the special interests, stand up for sound science over ideology. Instead they say one thing and do another.
The U.S. House of Representatives last year passed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, and Senator Menendez co-sponsored companion legislation in the Senate. During Health Week, Senator Menendez urged the Republican leadership to allow consideration of the legislation, and his call was heeded with a compromise that allowed todays vote.
Senator Menendez, whose mother suffers from Alzheimers disease, has long been an advocate of stem cell research. Menendez voted for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act while serving in the House of Representatives, as well as the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act and the Pancreatic Inslet Cell Transplantation Act bill. In 2004, New Jersey became the second state in the nation to enact a law that specifically permits embryonic stem cell research and has since channeled millions of dollars into this effort.
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