Yesterday (May 24) the US House of Representatives approved a stem cell bill that expands federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, allowing researchers to use tax dollars to study stem cells extracted from embryos that were discarded by fertility clinics. This is the first vote on embryonic stem cell research since President George Bush allowed limited federal funds to support research on existing cell lines in 2001.

The House also overwhelmingly approved a measure that creates banks of umbilical cord blood.

However, the 238 to 194 vote on embryonic stem cells lacked a two-thirds majority, which is needed to override a veto from President Bush, who has adamantly opposed the bill. Hours before the vote took place, the president met with parents of children who came from donated frozen embryos. The president has instead focused on promoting research using adult stem cells.

In a statement, Jim Greenwood, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, in Washington, DC, called this vote a "critical first step." Although the government got the ball rolling with limited research on existing cell lines, "in order to more fully advance the science, we need to expand both the number of stem cell lines available and the funds for this critical research," he added.

Mahendra Rao, senior investigator in the National Institutes of Health stem cell biology unit, told The Scientist in an E-mail that he was "enthused" by the bill. Kiminobu Sugaya, professor of molecular biology and microbiology at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, was equally excited by the news. "Surely, this would be the first step" to creating "unrestricted human ES [embryonic stem] cell research in US," Sugaya told The Scientist.

However, Rao noted that he was concerned by the president's vocal disapproval for the bill, which "tempers" his enthusiasm about this critical first step. Indeed, although Bernard Siegel of the Genetics Policy Institute in Florida called the bill "the most heartening news out of Washington in a long time," he told The Scientist he was "very disappointed" at the president's threats to veto.