Compromise – Texas House of Representatives agree not to force a vote on embryonic stem cell research leaving the rider on the Senate version to be settled in conference committee.
Why Grassroots Advocates Must Maintain Vigil for Political Chicanery
Senator Steve Ogden will try anything to shut down embryonic research in Texas!
Target of the group’s suspicions is Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan. Last month, with only hours’ notice to colleagues, Ogden guided through his committee a budget provision prohibiting use of state budget funds on research that involves destruction of human embryos.
Ogden has also authored SB 1695, a bill that goes even further. It bars embryonic stem cell research in any state-supported facilities – even if scientists tap only federal and private grants for salaries and expenses.
“That would pretty much shut her down in Texas,“ Ogden said Thursday, after a five-hour committee hearing.
Houston Chronicle Editorial – Stealth legislating
By injecting an amendment into the Texas Senate budget bill to ban state funding for stem cell research that involves the destruction of a human embryo, Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, has provided a textbook example of how powerful elected officials can end-run democratic processes to suit their own ideological agendas.
Passed with scant discussion by Ogden’s committee 6-5, the budget bill includes a rider that if allowed to become law, will inflict serious damage to efforts to boost regenerative medicine research in Texas, particularly at state institutions, including the University of Texas
Stem cell advocates stake out the Capitol
If there’s a chance for their voices to be heard, one small contingency makes sure they will be.
“We just want to be sure that there’s public testimony against the bill,” Lorraine Chammah of Texans for Advancement of Medical Research (TAMR) said
SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE ENDANGERS THE HEALTH OF THE TEXAS ECONOMY, INSTITUTIONS AND CITIZENS OF TEXAS
A rider added to the state budget bill by the Senate Finance Committee on Monday would undermine critical medical research into treatments for serious diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes, the head of Texans for the Advancement of Medical Research (TAMR) warned today.
On Tuesday the Senate Finance Committee voted 6-5 to add a rider to the budget bill, authored by committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, that would bar public funds “used in conjunction with or to support research which involves the destruction of a human embryo.”
