Murphy Statement on Presidential Veto of Stem Cell Bill

Press Release

Murphy Statement on Presidential Veto of Stem Cell Bill

Today, President Bush vetoed a bill that would have expanded federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The bill passed both the United States Senate and House of Representatives with bipartisan majorities, and recent polling shows that 72 percent of the American people support this bill. Congressman Chris Murphy (CT-5) released the following statement on the President's action:

"The President's veto of legislation that could potentially hold the key to curing debilitating or life-threatening diseases is dumbfounding. Once again, just like with his stay-the-course policy in Iraq, the President is stubbornly defying the will of the American people.

"Nothing is more basic and important than our health, and I came to Washington to work with people from across the country and across the political spectrum to fix our broken health care system. We passed the stem cell bill for the millions of Americans who could benefit from a federal commitment to this type of research, and its passage was one of the most meaningful moments in my months in Congress.

"But today, the President chose to deny access to medically justifiable and ethical stem cell research for millions of Americans in search of a cure. Lost in the President's ideological reasons for vetoing this bill is the fact that the House, the Senate, and the American people simply want him to allow the use of embryos that would be thrown away if they weren't used for medical research.

"The push for federal investment in stem cell research will not end with the stroke of his veto pen. In the coming weeks and months, I will work to keep this issue at the forefront of the debate in Washington."

Instead of signing the stem cell bill, the President issued an executive order encouraging federal agencies to do what they should already be doing - working to develop ways to create stem cells without using embryos.

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