House Republicans Drop Stem Cell Language from Budget

According to the Washington Post, House Republican Conferees agreed in a compromise to drop language that would ban the use of state funds for embryonic stem cell research. The language had stated the following:

Item 4-0.01 #1h

General Provisions
Operating Policies Language

Language:
Page 496, after line 9, insert:
"d. No funding in this budget, or matching funds related to funding included in this budget, may be provided for human stem cell research from stem cells obtained from human embryos; however, research conducted using stem cells other than embryonic stem cells may be funded.
e. No funding in this budget, or matching funds related to funding included in this budget, may be provided for research on cells or tissues derived from induced abortions on humans."

Explanation:
(This amendment would prohibit state funding of embryonic stem cell research itself, but it would also permit entities that conduct such research (without using state money) to receive state funding. Entities that receive funding for embryonic stem cell research from federal and private sources may also receive state dollars for purposes other than embryonic stem research. State funding of research on aborted fetuses would be prohibited.)

The same confrontation occurred two years ago but the language was slightly different in that it would have cut off all state funding to any entity that conducted human embryonic stem cell research, regardless of where the funding came from. Had such language survived that year, all state funds would have been cut off to Virginia's major research universities such as VCU and UVA.

This year, the language made it clear that the ban would only apply to state funds being used for such research. According to the WP article, the GOP dropped this language in return for the Democrats agreeing to strike amendments that were perceived to help collective bargaining efforts by unions.