House Passes Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act

HOUSE PASSES STEM CELL RESEARCH ENHANCEMENT ACT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) spoke on the House floor today in support of S. 5, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which passed the House by a bipartisan vote of 247-176. Congresswoman Schakowsky delivered the following remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to express my appreciation for Congresswoman DeGette's tireless and effective leadership on stem cell research. I also extend my thanks to Mr. Castle.

I rise today in support of this bill and add my voice to those of the patients, scientists, physicians and academic institutions who have been advocating for its passage with an unwavering resolve.

I have been struck and moved by the number of colleagues who have come here and cited their own family members, including their children, as the driving force behind their understanding of the importance of stem cell research and as the reason they so strongly support this legislation.

But none of us should be surprised, since 100 million Americans are afflicted with diseases that potentially could be cured by embryonic stem cell research. And I have heard from so many of them from my own district…it is time that we pass this bill for them.

I also rise today in the name of our beloved friend and part of our Congressional family, Lane Evans. Lane is one of the million Americans who suffer from Parkinson's disease, and who has had to cut his career short. His leadership and dedication to making progress with stem cell research was inspiring. He understood the hope that embryonic stem cell research holds for so many like him.

It is time that we pass this bill for people like Lane Evans. A hero, a marine, someone who has fought all his life, and now, we need to fight for him.

I also rise in support of this bill for my friend Bonnie Wilson and daughter Jenna, who is one of the 7 million American children living with diabetes. Stem cell treatment may be her only hope. It is time that we finally make progress, put aside ideology, and yes it is about ideology versus science, and pay attention to science.

And I want to thank all the children and parents. The children who have diabetes who come to me year after year after year to my office told me about the shots they take. The parents waking up several times during the night to check the levels on their children-worrying day and night that they are going to get that phone call that there has been some disaster.

It's for them that we do this. And so we are standing today on the brink of incredible scientific breakthroughs that are going to address the issues that plague all our families. My family has been plagued by the early loss of my daughter-in-law, Fiona, to cancer.

Well, let me just say then for Fiona and for my grandchildren, who are left motherless at a very, very young age, and for all the families. I'm not alone; no one is alone in this. That we stand together today to say we believe in a cure, we want to support a cure, we, the American people, through our taxpayer dollars, what could be a better expenditure of that.

Should we throw away unused embryonic stem cells? Should we toss in the garbage, literally, the possibilities of these cures? I don't think so.

Let's take that leap today for our children and future generations.