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国会与参议院议题向卫生与社会福利部(Hhs)费用转移
http://www.100md.com 2001年10月16日 好医生
     WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - The long-delayed budget bill for the Department of Health and Human Services advanced in both houses of Congress Thursday, but not without some trouble.

    The House passed its bill appropriating $301.5 billion for the Department by a vote of 373-43. Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the bill, which would provide $302.6 billion for HHS programs, by a vote of 29-0.

    The House had to overcome a potential rebellion from backers of the spending bill after the House Rules Committee sought to allow Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Pa., to offer an amendment to bar funding of school-based health clinics that distribute emergency contraception to minors.
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    Hart had been promised the chance to offer the language in the budget bill after she agreed not to offer it in an education bill in May. But Republican leaders also promised Democrats that they would not allow contentious "riders" to be debated on a bill that has had broad, bipartisan support.

    The House delayed the debate for a day while leaders attempted to work the problem out. In the end, Hart was persuaded to withdraw her amendment, but she was promised another opportunity later. "We will see this issue again," she said on the House floor.
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    That allowed the House to proceed to the measure, where among the amendments adopted was one by Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that would require that drugs initially developed with funding from the National Institutes of Health to be sold at "reasonable" prices.

    The Senate, meanwhile, could face a fight over stem cell funding when its bill goes before the full body.

    Both the House and Senate versions of the bill include language continuing the ban on research involving the destruction of human embryos. But the Senate bill appends language that Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.--a supporter of embryonic stem cell research--said "would leave it up to the President" to determine the extent to which research would be allowed.
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    Specifically, the bill says: "Federal dollars are permitted, at the discretion of the President, solely for the purpose of stem cell research on embryos that have been created in excess of clinical need and will be discarded, and donated with the written consent of the progenitors."

    Opponents of embryonic stem cell research said they were not comfortable with the language. "The policy in this bill is not a codification of the President's policy," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. That policy, he noted, allows funding only on embryonic stem cell lines already in existence as of August 9. Gregg warned that the language "is something that will have to be discussed at great length with the administration.", 百拇医药