Congressman Receives ASCB’s Public Service Award December 4, 2007
Posted by Reginald Johnson in Healthcare, Reform, Science, U.S. Congress.add a comment
U.S. Congressman Michael Castle, a moderate republican from the state of Rhode Island, has been named by the American Society for Cell Biology’s (ASCB) Public Policy Committee as the 2007 recipient of the organisation’s Public Service Award. He was presented the award during the ASCB Annual Meeting, here in Washington, D.C.
It has been noted that Castle has strongly supported biomedical research and actively defended the ASCB on Capitol Hill for a number of years. Members of the Public Policy Committee believe he was an obvious choice for 2007. “Of all the things that have come out in the past year, no one has made more of an impact to with biomedical research than Congressman Castle,” said one member.
Rep. Castle has led the fight in Congress to expand federally funded human embryonic stem cell research, and for this he was honoured.
Castle said, “I got involved because of the doctors, biologists and scientists before me this evening. Over the years, while in Congress, I have had various health advocacy groups come to my office. People fighting for alzheimer patients, chronic fatigue syndrome and other diseases have come seeking help. We had such a wave of constituents come through that we had to get a bigger office.”
He is most widely known for his first piece of legislation to amend President Bush’s stem cell policy in 2004. Castle has long admitted that he didn’t agree with the President on many things and sometimes have become an outspoken critic of the Administration. “It’s odd to disagree with the President because he’s in my political party,” said the congressman.
The bill was introduced in 2005, H.R.810. It was passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate before being vetoed by President Bush in the first veto of his presidency.
The congressman and embryonic stem cell researchers were bitterly disappointed to President Bush’s veto because the bill would have expanded federal funding of research on newer lines, or colonies, of stem cells.
The bill was passed on a Tuesday in the Senate turned the bill away the following Wednesday; with much White House fanfare. On Aug. 9, 2001, Bush approved National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines in existence at that time. But he balked at allowing federal funding of research on cells created after that. Congressional supporters of the bill lacked enough votes, a two-thirds majority, to overturn the veto.
Castle has reintroduced another bill, but he says, “…that bill is going to sit until the next presidency.” He further said, “If you can tell me who the next president of the United States will be, I can definitely tell you what will happen to that bill.”
Representative Castle has not limited his science advocacy to stem cell research. For several years Castle has led a small group of moderate Republicans in the House who fought against budgets crafted by the House Republican leadership. These budgets reduced
spending for important domestic programs, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The end product: bigger tax cuts for wealthy Americans.
The congressman remarked that it was Newt’s diligence that led to the NIH budget increase. Although he often disagreed with Gingrich, he did support him with expanding funding.
During the creation of the FY07 budget, Castle forced the Republican leadership to promise an additional $7.158 billion for the portion of the budget that funds the NIH.
