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- TEXAS TORNADO: Three Billion dollars in Cancer Research May be Swept From: Stephen Meyer
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TEXAS TORNADO: Three Billion dollars in Cancer Research May be Swept
Posted by: "Stephen Meyer" Stephen276@comcast.net stephen_meyer_stemcells
Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:29 pm (PDT)
TEXAS TORNADO: Three Billion dollars in Cancer Research May be Swept
Away
By Don Reed
Texas Governor Rick Perry's recent recommendation that Texas secede
from America was nonsensical. If the Governor is so uncomfortable in our
country that he wishes to leave, that is his right; but he will not take
Texas with him. Recent polls show the rest of his state is quite happy
being associated with the United States.
This fuss and furor is just a blustering dust storm, stirred up for
whatever temporary political purpose the Governor hoped to achieve. Few
people took him seriously; I doubt very much he did either. (When Mr.
Perry's political biography is written, it will quite rightly pay
more attention to the kindness of the Governor when Hurricane Katrina
created homeless refugees—and Texas took them in—than this
secession nonsense.)
But there is another Texas tornado which is deadly serious, and which
may cost Texas families a great deal.
Anyone who has cancer (my sister has it; my mother died of it) wants the
research for cure to move forward.
Lance Armstrong is a fighter for research, and he helped Texas pass an
amazing
$3 billion dollar research bill dedicated to finding a cure for cancer.
That money came with no restrictive anti-research strings attached.
Unfortunately, Senator Steve Ogden (R-Bryan) is attempting to block a
vital component of that research: shutting down embryonic stem cell
research in Texas.
Ogden is a cunning politico; this guy is legitimately tough, and knows
how to street fight—unfortunately he is using his very real
strengths to back an anti-research vision that is as out of step with
America as the Governor Perry's secession plan.
At a time when the rest of the country is embracing cure research, Mr.
Ogden wants to ban it.
Because he knows he is out of touch with Texas voters, he first tried to
do the damage quietly.
Senator Ogden inserted a "rider" onto the state's must-pass
budget bill, Senate Bill One. This rider bans state funding of embryonic
stem cell research.
As Committee chairman, Ogden waited until pro-research committee members
were out of the room, and then rushed through a quick vote, which passed
6-5.
There was no public notice, no testimony, no discussion. When asked
about this undemocratic procedure, he replied that the members had been
talking about it "privately". No worries about sunshine or
openness for Mr. Ogden!
Now, like a tick on the neck of a horse, that anti-research rider is
attached to the budget, to suck the life out of the cancer research
bill, and weaken that state's hope for cure.
Asked if he thought this would end embryonic stem cell research in his
state, the Senator reportedly replied, "If that bill won't do
it, the next one will."
The Senate let his rider stay on—the House stripped it off—now
the two houses will confer, and one will win and one will lose…
The next attack he spoke of, is Senate Bill 1695.
We need to let Senator Ogden know—politely but firmly—that the
families of Texas and America deserve better.
Now here's the catch. The Senator is an old pro, and as such knows
how to block unwanted correspondence.
I called yesterday and left a message. Then I emailed him.
I doubt very much either message will reach him.
But I am also going to send him a personal letter, the old-fashioned
kind, remember those, they have stamps on them? And that—even if
thrown away—will be noticed.
Because nobody writes letters anymore. Any personal letter gets
attention, and the Senator's staff will be tallying the responses.
The Senator expects, I am sure, to hear nothing but letters of support
from his allies in the Religious Right.
Let us surprise him. Politely, of course: rudeness only makes us look
like fringe elements, instead of mainstream America, which is what we
are.
I will be sending three copies of my letter to the Senator: one to each
of his three public offices.
Those addresses are:
1. Sen. Steve Ogden, Texas Senate, P.O. Box 12068, Capitol Station,
Austin, TX 78711
2. East District Office, 3740 Copperfield Drive, Suite 103, Bryan, Texas
77802
979/776-0521
3. West District Office, 309 West Main, Suite 115, Round Rock, Texas
78664
512/828-5224
Want some background? Below is probably more than you need, so if you
already are up on the effort, feel free to skip over it—but please,
help me with a letter, a call, or an email—don't leave it to
somebody else.
This is for Texas, but it is also for everyone. Texas is a wonderful
state, huge, full of diverse energy and power—we need the scientists
and colleges and patients and advocates and political leaders of the
Lone Star State—we need Texas, and so does the world..
The following info is from my friends at TXAMR—Texans for the
Advancement of Medical Research.
SB 1695 BY OGDEN (this is the second wave of attack I mentioned
earlier--dr)
Bill Background info: Would limit the use of state money or facilities
for research involving the destruction of human embryos, even those
destined for discard as medical waste by IVF clinics and used to create
stem cell lines for research. The rider would also ban IVF treatments.
WHAT THE BILL DOES:
* Ban research on stem cell lines created using fertilized eggs from
fertility clinics, eggs that were destined to be discarded as medical
waste. Using these eggs that would otherwise be thrown out to study
diseases and to search for treatments and cures, offers the hope of
healthier life for thousands of Texans.
* Ban research currently being conducted in state research
institutions around the state. SB 1695 does much more than ban funding
for embryonic stem cell research; it bans the conduct of the research by
NIH funds as well as private funding.
* Ban current research on previously approved federal stem cell
lines. Research studies using the embryonic stem lines approved by
President Bush in 2001 would come to a halt in Texas.
* Stop all embryonic stem cell research in all state institutions in
Texas
* Senator Ogden's bill would prohibit the use of state dollars to
pay the salaries of our state employed researchers who work with
embryonic stem lines.
* Senate Bill 1695 would prohibit the use of state supported labs for
embryonic stem cell research even if the research money comes from
federal grants.
* Under Senator Ogden's bill, researchers will face a choice of
leaving state institutions or stopping their research. The state of
Texas will likely lose our best researchers, their staff, their research
grant money and their graduate students and medical students to other
states and countries that appreciate good science and good medicine.
* Under Senator Ogden's bill, cancer research conducted at the
newly established Cancer Research Initiative, and research into other
life threatening diseases such as Parkinson's Disease,
Alzheimer's and diabetes will be severely limited.
* Senator Ogden's bill would halt the gains we have made at
better understanding how cells function and where malignancies or
mutations occur and why. Researchers have repeatedly said that studying
embryonic stem cells helps in the development of adult stem cell
therapies.
WHAT YOU MIGHT WISH TO SAY:
I urge Senator Ogden to abandon his plans to push SB 1695 in Senate
Finance Committee.
As a state with premier research institutions, citizens across the
country are hopefully awaiting treatments and cures for life threatening
diseases and conditions that may be discovered in Texas.
Texas has too much to lose in banning the funding of ethical, regulated
embryonic stem cell research.
I urge Senator Ogden to carefully consider the human and economic losses
in not supporting legal, ethical and safe embryonic stem cell research
in this state.
Here is my letter (Don Reed)
Dear Senator Ogden:
First, thank you for being a Senator-- I am sure it is never an easy
job!
As the father of a paralyzed young man, Roman Reed, I am deeply
distressed by SB 1695. I am very familiar with embryonic stem cell
research, having been the citizen sponsor of a small law in California,
the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act of 1999. "Roman's
Law" funded the first state-sponsored embryonic stem cell research
in the nation—the spinal cord injury research experiment which goes
to human trials this Summer.
I have seen it work. On March 1, 2002, in the laboratory named after my
son (the Roman Reed Laboratory, within the Reeve-Irvine Research
Institute at UC Irvine) I held in my hand a laboratory rat which had
been paralyzed, but which walked again, thanks to embryonic stem cell
research.
Biblically, I tend to go along with Psalm 139, which says, "He knit me
together in my mother's womb". That is where an individual life begins.
Scientifically, as you know, it is biologically impossible to create a
child without a mother's womb-- and accordingly, cells in a Petri dish
can never become a child.
I respect your right to your views, Senator Ogden, but please be aware
there are millions of Americans who suffer every day, and who want the
research to move forward.
Do please reconsider your advocacy for SB 1695. If enacted into law, it
would slow the progress of Lone Star scientists as they work their way
toward cure.
Thank you,
Don C. Reed
Want to know more, do more? More from our friends in TXAMR
About Stem Cell Research Bills Now Pending in the Texas Legislature
If you had a chance to make a call to your state senator and Lt. Gov.
Dewhurst, many thanks. If you didn't, here's another opportunity to make
calls in support of stem cell research. Below is information on what's
happening right now and how you can help. At the bottom are an editorial
and an op-ed further explaining why this is so important. Again, please
pass this on to your friends and family.
If you are not sure who represents you, click here
<http://www.fyi.legis.state. > and enter your home address undertx.us/
"who represents me" to find your senator and representative and their
phone number.
Texans for Advancement of Medical Research (TAMR) thanks you for making
your voices heard -- we had word that the majority of calls coming in to
the offices were in support of research.
We also appreciate your passing these emails on to others. (If you are
not receiving TAMR's alerts, sign up here <http://www.txamr.org/ > to be
an advocate.)
Unfortunately, the budget bill, SB1, passed with the rider still
attached. Five senators, Kirk Watson, Eliot Shapleigh, Mario Gallegos,
Rodney Ellis and Wendy Davis had the courage to vote against the bill
that carried this destructive rider.
What happens next?
The House will act on its own budget bill, HB1. Then, both bills go to a
Conference Committee with 5 people chosen from each of the committees
that heard the bill. These 10 people will decide whether the rider
becomes part of the budget for the next two years.
Finance chair, Steve Ogden changed his rider that will go before the
committee to read:
Sec. 17.13 No Destruction of Human Embryos for Research Purposes. Until
legislation is passed by the Texas Legislature and becomes law
authorizing and regulating embryonic stem cell research, no funds
appropriated under this Act shall be used to directly fund research,
which involves the destruction of a human embryo.
This is not acceptable.
Even if the budget bill is stripped of the rider, we still have to deal
with Ogden's bill SB 1695, co-authored by Dan Patrick and Jane Nelson,
that prohibits the use of state money for research involving destruction
of human embryos. This is written broader than the rider to the budget
and would end all embryonic stem cell and IVF research in any of the
laboratories of our state and private universities (because all receive
state funding.)
SB 1695 reads:
A person may not use state money or a facility owned, leased, or managed
by a state agency, department or office for research involving the
destruction of human embryos, including embryonic stem cell research, or
to support research involving the destruction of human embryos.
So, the bottom line is:
We need you to keep up the good work and watch your email for alerts, as
your help is certain to be needed over the next few weeks.
If you have not had the opportunity to make these three calls, please do
so with this message:
"I want you to understand the importance of stem cell research, and the
impact it will have on Texas if it is banned--for the institutions,
researchers, patients, and the economy. I am asking you not to let a ban
on embryonic stem cell research or the funding for it happen in Texas,
either in a stand-alone bill like SB 1695 which has been filed, but has
not yet been heard in committee, or in the budget for the state."
Call: Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst (512) 463- 0001 (He will
appoint 5 Senate members to the Conference Committee for the budget,
where the rider that bans hESC will be stripped or retained.
Call: Speaker of the House Joe Straus (512) 463-0686 He will appoint 5
House members to the Conference Committee for the budget, where the
rider that bans hESC will be stripped or retained.
Call: Rep. Jim Pitts (512) 463-0516 Chair of House Appropriations
Call: Rep. Leo Berman (512) 463-0584 District 6 or Rep. Tommy Merritt
(512) 463-0750 District 7
If you missed the recent editorial from Houston Chronicle or the op-ed
from Bernard Weinstein, economist, please read them below. I think you
will find them interesting.
http://www.chron.com/disp/ story.mpl/ editorial/ 6354531.html
<http://www.chron.com/disp/ >story.mpl/ editorial/ 6354531.html
Stealth legislating: Vote down ban on state funding for stem cell
research
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 Ogdens 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
Health Science Center in Houston.
Proponents of the stem cell funding ban have failed to pass bills in
previous legislative sessions, as lawmakers from both parties have
opposed it. Republican House members Beverly Woolley of Houston and Rick
Hardcastle of Vernon are among the key supporters of responsible stem
cell research, as is U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Now that the administration of President Barack Obama is dismantling
federal barriers to expanded fetal stem cell use, new state funding
restrictions would drive talent and research dollars to other states.
An open letter to legislators from pre-eminent members of the states
scientific community contends that the ban would halt ongoing research
projects and negatively impact the ability of the Texas academic health
institutions, both public and private, to competitively recruit and
retain world-class scientists, professors and medical students in the
biological sciences. They contend that since private funding is almost
never available for early-stage biomedical research, a ban such as this
would effectively stifle this research in Texas. The letter is signed by
researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, the UT Health System and
Rice, as well as two Nobel Laureates and a former presidential science
adviser.
Bernard L. Weinstein, who directs the Center for Economic Development
and Research at the University of North Texas at Denton, says the ban
would run counter to a campaign by Gov. Rick Perry to boost the Texas
biotech industries. It would cost the state billions of dollars in
economic activity while undermining Texas image as a hospitable
environment for research.
State Rep. Ellen Cohen, a Democrat whose district includes the Texas
Medical Center, says the amendment was passed with no public debate or
input from the thousands of doctors, researchers and medical
professionals responsible for extending so many lives I cannot stand by
silently when the voices of so many responsible for so much good are not
even heard.
Ogdens amendment is no minor technical measure inserted for some
hometown special interests. It is an attack on the viability of a vital
sector of the state economy and upon the well-being of future thousands
of desperately ill Texans who could benefit from the cures resulting
from stem cell advances.
Late Wednesday the Senate passed the budget, including Ogdens amendment,
by a vote of 26-5. Before the vote, he explained that his intent was not
to ban all such research but to keep state money from being used
directly for research involving the destruction of a human embryo.
Whatever his stated intent, more progressive members should strike the
ban when the budget reaches conference committee.
While claiming the moral high ground in defense of fertility clinic
embryos that are routinely discarded, Ogden used the amendment route
rather than relying on his own bill with similar wording that would have
faced public hearings and an up-and-down vote by colleagues.
This issue is far too important to be decided by a back-room legislative
maneuver. It is now up to responsible lawmakers in the Texas Senate and
House to counter Ogdens power play and approve a budget that does not
undermine the ability of our medical institutions to participate in the
renewed national effort to advance a promising field of medical
research.
===
Proposed Restrictions on Stem Cell Funding May Kill Texas' Emerging
Biotechnology Industry
By Bernard L. Weinstein*
Recent scientific advances have caused tremendous excitement in the
burgeoning field of regenerative medicine, which focuses on developing
therapies to restore or replace damaged cells and tissues in the human
body. Stem cell research has proven to be one of the most promising
areas of research, offering the opportunity to revolutionize medical
treatment, drug development and biomedical research.
From heart disease and diabetes, to Parkinson's disease and spinal cord
injuries, stem cell research in its many forms-including embryonic stem
cell research-holds the key that could potentially unlock the secrets to
treatments and cures that have long eluded patients suffering from some
of the most devastating diseases.
Unlike Texas, many other states are making strong commitments to stem
cell research, not only to improve public health but also to capitalize
on its economic development potential. Institutions in California, New
Jersey, Massachusetts and Wisconsin have been the leaders in this field,
in part because of state laws that ensure the legality of embryonic stem
cell research. By contrast, the Texas Senate Finance Committee has just
reported out a budget bill for the next biennium that would prohibit the
use of any state funds for embryonic stem cell research, even as
restrictions on federal funding for such research have been removed.
An even greater irony is that Governor Rick Perry has targeted the
biosciences as a growth sector for the Texas economy. (emphasis added,
dr) Texas currently possesses a biotechnology industry comprised of
about 950 private companies as well as world-class universities and
research facilities and the largest medical center in the world. But
putting legislative restrictions on stem cell research runs the risk of
damaging the entire biotech sector, as serious researchers are likely to
locate in states with more accommodating political climates. The
potential economic and humanitarian losses could be huge.
Texas currently accounts for only 2.9 percent of the nation's
biotechnology industry compared with almost 8 percent of its gross
domestic product. Just increasing our share to the national average
would contribute an additional $87.4 billion to state economic activity
and support over 230,000 direct, indirect, and induced jobs paying more
than $12.8 billion in salaries and wages. State and local tax receipts
would be boosted by more than $8 billion annually.
The fruits of stem cell research also promise to reduce the financial
burden of treating serious diseases such as stroke, type 1 diabetes,
Parkinson 's disease, and spinal cord injuries. Currently, the cost of
treating Texans with these ailments is nearly $14 billion a year.
Reducing these costs by as little as one percent would save almost $140
million each year. Over a thirty-year period, these cost reductions
would sum to $4.2 billion. Savings would also be achieved in the state's
Medicaid program.
If Texas is to be a leader in the biosciences, with all the anticipated
health and economic benefits that will follow, the state must maintain a
hospitable environment for research and development. At a minimum, Texas
needs to be known as a "safe haven" for medical research, including
embryonic stem cells. Indeed, if we're serious about becoming a major
player in the global bioscience arena, we should be allocating-not
prohibiting-state funding for such research.
*Weinstein is director of the Center for Economic Development and
Research and a professor of applied economics at the University of North
Texas in Denton. His email address is bernard.weinstein@unt.edu
<mailto:bernard.weinstein@unt.edu >
====
Make a donation to support the work of TAMR.
Texans for Advancement of Medical Research (TAMR) is a Texas Nonprofit
Corporation and is a 501(C)(4). grassroots volunteer legislative
advocacy organization; therefore your contributions are greatly
appreciated but are not deductible for IRS income tax purposes.
Tell a friend to Become an Advocate for regenerative medicine.
Thanks, Folks!
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