ISSCR Meets with Policymakers in Washington, D.C.
The ISSCR hosted its second Congressional Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C. on March 2, which was a great success. A group of 20 ISSCR members and staff met with nearly 40 offices of key legislators to advocate for an increase in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for FY 2024, discuss the importance of access to fetal tissue for research, and explain the value of chimeric embryo research.
The evening before our visit to the U.S. Congress, the ISSCR staff shared background for meetings with policymakers and hosted Sheila Murphy, Vice President of Advocacy Programs and Initiatives with Research!America. Sheila discussed effective advocacy with our group based on her 25+ years of senior legislative experience working on Capitol Hill in various capacities.
On the Advocacy Day, I was pleased to join the group to walk the halls of the House of Representatives and Senate office buildings to share exciting advances in our field and build relationships with lawmakers in positions of influence. Amanda Clark, Sean Morrison, and myself together visited offices of eight senators and representatives, ably assisted by Tyler Lamb, ISSCR Director of Policy. I was impressed by how attentively the legislators’ teams listened to us and felt invigorated by the opportunities to extend our knowledge and requests to the legislative system on behalf of the stem cell research community.
Specifically, the ISSCR advocates had three objectives while meeting with lawmakers. They included:
Advocating for increasing the NIH budget to $50.924 billion for Fiscal Year 2024, which represents a 5% increase over FY 2023. The ISSCR supports this increase, joining with a large coalition of stakeholders who support robust funding for biomedical research.
A request to oppose two bills introduced in the House of Representatives that would severely limit or prevent the use of human fetal tissue for research.
Sharing concerns about efforts in the previous Congress and potential efforts in the current Congress to unduly limit or ban chimeric embryo research. Further, the ISSCR asked for support to prevent those restrictions or bans should the topic surface again in this Congress.
The ISSCR also plans to meet with policymakers in the EU. We consider relationship building and information sharing with EU legislators as key components of ISSCR’s strategic priority on advocacy for stem cell field.
Join us at ISSCR 2023 for the Global Policy Priorities session on Friday, 16 June 2023 beginning at 1:15 p.m. EDT to hear more about advocacy work the ISSCR is doing on behalf of our members.
I look forward to seeing you there!
Haifan