mr. speaker , i am fortunate to represent the university of wisconsin , madison , where dr .  jamie thompson and his team were the first to derive and culture human embryonic stem cells in a lab .  these cells can be described as the parent cells of all tissues in the body .  embryonic stem cells open the possibility of dramatic new medical treatments , transplantation therapies , and cures .  but at 9 p.m .  on august 9 , 2001 , the hope and promise of this embryonic stem cell research was greatly curtailed .  president bush declared that researchers who received federal funding could work only with embryonic stem cell lines created before that date and time .  there were supposed to be 78 lines that were eligible for federally funded research .  however , due to age , old technologies , contamination , only 22 are useful for research today .  mr. speaker , why are we tying the hands of our scientists who receive nih grants or other federal dollars to support their research ?  why are we curtailing scientific progress in america while scientists in other countries rapidly seize the opportunity inherent in advancing this research ?  h.r. 810 creates strong new safeguards and guidelines concerning research on human embryonic stem cells .  strict criteria , including written informed consent for donation , must be met before federal researchers can derive and culture new stem cell lines .  some members on the other side of this debate say their constituents are opposed to their federal tax dollars being used on this groundbreaking science .  well , i have constituents as well , like young jessie alswager of madison , wisconsin .  jessie has juvenile diabetes , and every year he comes to washington to lobby for this research to move us closer to a cure .  jessie is only 8 ; so i do not think he pays taxes yet ; but his mom , michelle , sure does .  and michelle , like millions of other americans who could be helped by this science , very much want their tax dollars spent on stem cell research .  i urge support of the castle-degette bill .  