mr. speaker , i thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time .  mr. speaker , i rise in support of this bill , which will expand funding for embryonic stem cell research , and i am proud to be an original cosponsor of it .  what i would like to say today is the following : scientists have informed us , the professional scientists in our country , not political scientists , but scientists , and what they have told us from their considerable work and research is that this issue represents hope .  it represents hope for the cure of diseases that plague so many of our people , from juvenile diabetes all the way to the other part of life , which is alzheimer 's , and so many diseases in between .  this congress and previous congresses have seen fit to double the funding of the national institutes of health .  i have always called them the national institutes of hope .  we are now on the threshold , we are now on the threshold of debating an issue that can bring hope to our people .  it is up to us to have an ethical standard in this debate .  that is why no human cloning is a part of the bill that i support .  why ?  because no one supports that .  the american people are decent and they want an ethical standard , but they also want their nation 's leaders to continue to give hope to them , hope for the cure of these diseases that cause so much human suffering .  we have a responsibility in terms of our compassion , in terms of the instruction that our nation 's scientists have given to us .  so i urge my colleagues to support this bill .  it is an ethical bill , and it is a bill that is all about hope .  mr. speaker , i rise in support of this bill which will expand funding for embryonic stem cell research , and i 'm proud to be an original cosponsor of it .  under this bill embryonic stem cell lines will be eligible for federal funding only if the embryos used to derive stem cells were originally created for fertility treatment purposes and are in excess of clinical need .  today , there are thousands of surplus embryos from fertility treatments that will never be used and will likely be discarded .  we should allow parents who choose to donate these embryos for use in federally-funded stem cell research to do so .  my home-state of california recently approved a $ 3 billion ballot initiative to fund embryonic stem-cell experiments .  it is the largest state-supported scientific research program in the country .  this initiative places california at the forefront of the field and exceeds all current stem-cell projects in the united states .  but without additional federal funding , our scientific leadership is being transferred overseas .  where the leading-edge research is carried out matters a great deal .  any policy restricting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research threatens the long-term vitality of the u.s. economy , and most importantly denies millions of americans hope .  i urge all my colleagues to vote `` yes '' on h.r. 810 .  