Stem Cell Fact Check: Clinton - not * - first to fund stem cell research.

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Email from DNC



STEM CELL FACT CHECK: CLINTON - NOT BUSH - WAS THE FIRST TO FUND

As Congress debates stem cell funding, one thing we will hear over and over from the Bush administration is that President Bush was the first to allow funding for stem cell research. In fact, the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act, passed in 1993 and signed by President Clinton gave the NIH direct authority to fund human embryo research for the first time. And in 2000, the Clinton administration endorsed ethical guidelines that allowed NIH to begin accepting grant proposals from scientists. The Bush administration put a halt to application review in 2001 and in August 2001, placed restrictions on stem cell research that are being debated in Congress now.

Curious that the fact checkers working on the current First Lady's staff missed this point. At the Republican National Convention in September 2004, Laura Bush told a televised audience "My husband is the first president to provide federal funding for stem cell research." Sometimes the facts escape us.

You can count on Democrats to continue leading on this critical issue for families across the country.