Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Chair, two years ago the President signed the Stem Cell Research and Therapeutic Act into law.

    This bipartisan legislation is designed to turn medical waste to medical miracles by deriving stem cells from umbilical cords and placentas after the birth of a child.

    Cord blood transplantation is saving lives and is doing so today. It is one of the most promising and exciting fields in the area of regenerative medicine. The bipartisan legislation, Madam Chair, establishes a nationwide integrated bone marrow cord blood stem cell transplantation program.

    The good news, according to a July 13 technical assistance briefing memo by HRSA, is that six major grant recipients, Duke, New York Blood, Puget Sound Blood Center, Stem Cyte, the University of Colorado and the Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas have received funds for state-of-the-art programs that are now part of the newly created National Cord Blood Inventory.

    With significant infrastructure now in place, and more blood grant centers imminent, and single point of access to facilitate the delivery of those units, more than 4,600 units of lifesaving cord blood has already been collected.

    HRSA reports that approximately $22 million from fiscal years 2004 and 2007 appropriations will make collection of some 17,000 cord blood units possible by the end of fiscal year 2007.

    The question is--then what?

    According to HRSA--in FY08--the new Cord Blood Program, just coming into it's own, will have to rely entirely on new appropriations.

    So the bad news, it seems to me, is that if funded at about $4 million for FY08, the amount in the bill, the current grant recipients will have to dramatically scale back in their cord blood banking initiatives just as they're ramping up--just as breakout is occurring. 

    At $4 million, only about 3,000 units will be available in FY08 for medical realization of the goal of 150,000 units the experts tell us is needed to provide genetic matches for over 90 percent of Americans who can be aided by cord blood transplant.

    We've come so far--the network is in place. And that money buys more cord blood which means more people cured and more research to save even more lives.

    The $15 million that my colleague from Alabama and I are asking Members to support comports with the authorized level and is derived from within the HRSA allocation, which in the underlying bill is being increased by $69 million over last year and $1.3 billion over the President's request. Our shift represents less than 1/4 of 1 percent of HRSA's $7 billion.

    Surely, we can accommodate an $11 million shift--the net effect of the amendment--to a proven regenerative medical treatment that will mitigate--even cure--a myriad of diseases including leukemia and sickle cell anemia.