Im on the second floor of the Capitol, the Senate side, walking past the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist(R-Tn.)
Out walks actress Mary Tyler Moore, slim and wearing a pantsuit, holding hands with man I did not recognize.
WILL UPDATE WITH VOTES
Shes being escorted to the elevator around the corner. She exits on the third floor and is ushered into the Senate Gallery, entering a door near the Senate Press Gallery. (Shes kind of press, right? Moore played Mary Richards, a news producer for WJM in Minneapolis back in the 1970s. Her breakthrough role was as Laura Petrie on the Dick Van Dyke Show.)
Moore had just finished meeting with Frist, a heart transplant surgeon, a few hours before the Senate was to vote on three stem cell research bills.
Republicans are split over stem cell research. Frist supports stem cell research. President Bush has threatened to issue his first veto if the bill dealing with expanding federal funding for stem cell research reaches his desk. Moore has been the International Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and met with Frist to help rally support.
The Senate spent most of Tuesday debating cellular biology and, as Frist said, “the proper role of the federal government.
All three bills are expected to pass the Senate. The House already passed one of the bills in the package last summer. The House GOP leaders plan to allow a vote to override the presidents expected veto. There do not seem to be enough votes to over-ride an expected veto.
The bills, being debated at the same time, can be found at www.senate.gov S. 3504, S. 2754, and H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Bills.
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