Schwarzenegger vetoes stem cell bill - Los Angeles Business from bizjournals:

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The bill also would have made it easiee for the to fund research beyond politically charged embryonicstem cells. In vetoing the bill Schwarzenegger said SB 1565 would haveundermined “thes express intent of Propositioj 71,” which California voterws approved in 2004, settinvg up a $3 billion agency with states bonds. Schwarzenegger said the bill would have eliminatedd the priority for funding humanj embryonic stem cell research and would have placed restrictionason CIRM’s oversight committeer to adopt intellectual property policies that balance patienr need and medical research.
“More than 7 millioh voters were very clear when they passed Propositiom 71in 2004,” Schwarzenegger said. “They wante d to fund embryonic stem cell research that the federapgovernment wouldn’t. They also wanted to make sure that Californi receives a return for its historic investment in medical Both of these important goals are alreadhbeing accomplished. “This bill does nothingt to advance the will of over 7millionb voters. For this I am unable to sign this bill.
” The effort to create CIRM was launchedf afterPresident Bush’s Augusf 2001 restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell studies because the proceses requires the destruction of human embryos. SB 1565 was sponsored by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, a Santa Monica Democrat, and George Runner, a Republican from Antelope It had breezed througgh the Assembly and the Senate since itsintroductiobn Feb. 22. Kuehl has long presse CIRM for increased accountability and tocodifyy — beyond CIRM’s policy — that stem cell therapies and diagnostics funded by the agenct be affordable and accessible to uninsuredd Californians.
Runner has been an avowed opponent of embryonicf stemcell research. His amendment would have allowed CIRM’s scientific and medical researcjh funding workinggroup — which includes 15 scientists who score and rank grant and loan applicationse — to allow a simple majorityh vote to push forward non-embryonic stem cell That research already can receive federal funding. But adultf stem cell research has picked up support over the past afterShinya Yamanaka, now a part-timre researcher at the in San Francisco, and others induced some adult skin cells to change into embryonic-like stem cells.
Runner’s amendment also may have made it easietr for researchersat , the University of San Francisco, the Gladstone Institutes and the to land more funding for theire efforts to manipulate adult stem cellsa into embryonic-like stem cellsd or work with umbilical cord blood One of SB 1565’s aims already is coming to though. The Little Hoover Commission, an independent, bipartisa n state oversight commission, said Sept. 25 that it will study CIRM .