April 28, 2006
Friends:
Thanks for reading today, I know it's the second Record this week, and I sincerely appreciate your interest!
See below for a quick overview of stem cell research!
Education and Personal Activities
Floor Activity
Resources
Education and Personal Activities
A $446 million school plan passed out of the Senate committee. It was debated in the Senate during the House debate on the budget. The Senate passed their version of the budget this afternoon.
There is no Local Option Budget (LOB = local control) authority in the Senate education bill, although there is a little more money for large schools and at-risk students. Rumors abound about another education bill that will be floated in the House next week. Stay tuned!
Floor Activity
Budget bill highlights – HOUSE VERSION ONLY (not the final bill - this would still have to go to conference with the Senate and may lose/gain provisions)
We debated the budget Thursday and Friday and it has a couple of major pieces you might find interesting or hear about later.
1. Stem cell research ban: To be sure, whomever runs against me will call this my "human cloning vote" because the amendment banned human cloning, but also any form of early stem cell research, including existing treatments for cancer, like cloning your liver (or pick an organ) cells to create cancer-free cells. Think of your workplace or extended family… If yours is like mine, of course I support a ban on human cloning! It's the banning of lifesaving cures I just cannot justify.
o Quick stem cell briefer: Two kinds of early stem cell research: 1) embryonic and 2) somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).
Passed General Orders, we will have the final vote on Monday.
Resources
Johnson County Statehouse Hotline - Call Topeka for free! Dial 913.715.5000 and ask for your Representative or Senator. If you don't know, simply give them your address and they'll head you in the right direction!
LIVE!! House or Senate Chamber
LIVE!! Paperless House Health and Human Services Committee (1:30-3:30 pm MTWR)
Please do not hesitate to contact me about these or any other issues of interest to you. I appreciate the opportunity to represent you in Topeka.
Rep. Stephanie Sharp
17th District, Kansas House
Serving Lenexa and Shawnee
www.stephaniesharp.com
Home: 913-894-1201
Topeka phone: 785-296-7654 (Note: this is a change from last year.)
Thanks for reading today, I know it's the second Record this week, and I sincerely appreciate your interest!
See below for a quick overview of stem cell research!
Education and Personal Activities
Floor Activity
Resources
Education and Personal Activities
A $446 million school plan passed out of the Senate committee. It was debated in the Senate during the House debate on the budget. The Senate passed their version of the budget this afternoon.
There is no Local Option Budget (LOB = local control) authority in the Senate education bill, although there is a little more money for large schools and at-risk students. Rumors abound about another education bill that will be floated in the House next week. Stay tuned!
Floor Activity
Budget bill highlights – HOUSE VERSION ONLY (not the final bill - this would still have to go to conference with the Senate and may lose/gain provisions)
We debated the budget Thursday and Friday and it has a couple of major pieces you might find interesting or hear about later.
1. Stem cell research ban: To be sure, whomever runs against me will call this my "human cloning vote" because the amendment banned human cloning, but also any form of early stem cell research, including existing treatments for cancer, like cloning your liver (or pick an organ) cells to create cancer-free cells. Think of your workplace or extended family… If yours is like mine, of course I support a ban on human cloning! It's the banning of lifesaving cures I just cannot justify.
o Quick stem cell briefer: Two kinds of early stem cell research: 1) embryonic and 2) somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).
- Pretty basic - these are fertilized embryos (egg+sperm) that are leftover from the in-vitro fertilization process (IVF). Federal law dictates, and President Bush supports that research can only be conducted on existing cell lines, no new ones can be developed.
- SCNT takes a regular, unfertilized egg, removes the nucleus and
inserts a skin cell, or a liver cell, etc. Because these cells
are the very beginning level, they can be programmed into any kind of
cell. So, if you are a paralyzed from the neck down, and we can
regrow spinal cord cells to make you walk (remember the article in the
Star, a local man went abroad to try this out), that's the idea.
Same idea with organ cells and regenerating healthy cells to combat
cancerous ones. Treatments derived from this process will be more
reluctant to rejection by the patient because the researchers insert
the patients own healthy liver/lung/spinal cord cells.
- It wasn't all that long ago when blood transfusions and in-vitro fertilization were under the same "microscope". Pun intended.
- If you're a lawyer, real estate agent, banker, insurance agent, farmer, consultant, teacher, or any other job, if scientists and researchers, who are actually in the field (not a "think tank"), define "somatic cell nuclear transfer" (SCNT) different from you, wouldn't that make you reconsider your definition?
- In other words - education funding comes first.
Passed General Orders, we will have the final vote on Monday.
Resources
Johnson County Statehouse Hotline - Call Topeka for free! Dial 913.715.5000 and ask for your Representative or Senator. If you don't know, simply give them your address and they'll head you in the right direction!
LIVE!! House or Senate Chamber
LIVE!! Paperless House Health and Human Services Committee (1:30-3:30 pm MTWR)
Please do not hesitate to contact me about these or any other issues of interest to you. I appreciate the opportunity to represent you in Topeka.
Rep. Stephanie Sharp
17th District, Kansas House
Serving Lenexa and Shawnee
www.stephaniesharp.com
Home: 913-894-1201
Topeka phone: 785-296-7654 (Note: this is a change from last year.)