Stem-cell legislation racing ahead

April 6, 2005

Bush is the first president in 150 years to go an entire term without vetoing a single bill, but if progress on stem-cell legislation stays on track, we’ll see his first one soon.

A controversial bill to hike funding for stem-cell research is gaining momentum in the House, increasing the chances that it will be the first bill President Bush vetoes.

The bill, sponsored by Reps. Mike Castle (R-Del.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), has 186 co-sponsors, including 20 Republicans, and a Democratic aide tracking the bill predicted the legislation will eventually secure a majority of the House. Most of those votes are expected to come from House Democrats.

Because a Senate version of the bill already has 58 co-sponsors, many political observers expect the bill to reach the president’s desk if it clears the House.

Bush hasn’t officially warned lawmakers that he’d veto the legislation. Indeed, as far as I can tell, the White House is ignoring the bill’s existence. But the numbers here speak for themselves — proponents of funding stem-cell research have the votes to pass the bill in both chambers and Speaker Dennis Hastert has promised sponsors a floor vote. This thing, in other words, looks like it is eventually going to pass.

Which would put the White House is in a very uncomfortable position.

Because Bush hasn’t vetoed anything, there’d be more attention than usual for this presidential rejection. It would mean front-page news across the country that a bi-partisan bill to expand federal funding for life-saving medical research reached the president’s desk — but because the religious right insists a blastocyst is a person, the president refused to sign it into law. This, despite broad public support for the research, plus the support of high-profile conservatives like Orrin Hatch and Nancy Reagan.

Would Bush really risk the political backlash? Does he really want to tell the nation that he’d reject popular, bi-partisan legislation that could save lives because James Dobson has Karl Rove on speed dial?

Time will tell.

He will take the chicken way out. He will let it sit on his desk without signing it and it will become law. This way he can say he didn’t really approve it, and blame Congress. He can also say he didn’t stop it from happening, but if anything bad happens it is not on his shoulders.

  • bubba,

    isn’t that a pocket veto? I.e. if he doesn’t sign the bill, doesn’t it de facto fail?

  • If the president doesn’t sign a bill within 10 days it becomes law, as long as the legislature is in session. However, if the legislative session ends before the time period runs out, the bill does not become law, effectively vetoing it because the president “put it in his pocket and forgot about it.”

  • If, as appears likely, the Repub leadership can’t prevent a vote on this bll, they’ll ensure that it’s passed just before the August recess. Then Bush can just ignore it, resulting in a pocket veto. No veto message, no press conference, and therefore as little publicity as they can manage. Fox, Rush, et al will spin it as not a veto, so no big deal. The MSM will cover it, but will quickly move on as usual. (After all, probably only a few thousand preventable deaths and disabilities starting in a few decades – no big deal.)

    • Comments are closed.