U.S. Rep. Chris Smith joined President George W. Bush in a bill signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room at the White House this morning for the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005 (HR 2520). The non-controversial legislation, authored by Smith, passed the House of Representatives on Saturday by a vote of 413-0 after being stalled in the Senate by a politically motivated maneuver to force action on more controversial stem cell bills. Smith first started developing the bill in 2001 and had been urging its passage since. 

    “So many people don’t realize that cord blood and adult stem cells are already treating patients, and have achieved remarkable breakthroughs over the past year,” said Smith, who worked relentlessly over the past week to assure the bill’s passage. "Now that President Bush has made my bill law, for the first time a nationwide stem cell transplantation system will be established." 

    Umbilical cords are a rich, non-controversial source of stem cells. Currently hospitals throw millions of them away each year because the infrastructure required to properly collect and store them is not available. The number of cord blood units and cord blood stem cells available for treating patients and expanding research will now greatly increase. 

    “We have been working on this bill since 2001, and I am thankful that treatments will now, finally, be made available to patients in need,” said Smith. 

    The new law will proved $265 million for life saving stem cell therapy, cord blood and bone marrow transplant. Specifically, $79 million will be authorized for the collection and storage of cord blood stem cells (a type of adult stem cell) with the goal of reaching a total inventory of 150,000 units. This would make them available to more than 90 percent of patients in need. A specific focus of the collection will be to provide more genetic diversity in available units.

    The national program will also promote stem cell research by requiring participating cord blood banks to donate units not suitable for transplant to researchers and scientists. In addition, the new law reauthorizes $186 million over the next five years to the national bone marrow transplant system and combines both systems (cord blood and bone marrow) under one program – providing an easy, single access point for doctors and patients.

    “Thousands of Americans who might have otherwise continued to suffer or died will now be saved because larger and diverse inventories of umbilical cord stem cells will be available,” said Smith. 

    Thousands have been successfully treated with cord blood stem cells for more than 67 diseases including Leukemia and Sickle Cell Anemia – which affects thousands of African Americans. The infusion of federal funds will make this medical miracle available to thousands more and will ensure that research continues so that this source of stem cells can treat many other debilitating diseases.