Aggregated News
The state Senate is unlikely to pursue a November ballot measure imposing stricter controls on California's new stem cell agency and instead will request that the agency's oversight board implement its own new rules by mid-July, lawmakers said this week.
Senate Democrats believe the proposed measure, State Constitutional Amendment 13 by Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, might clutter the November ballot and would benefit from more deliberation between lawmakers and the stem cell board.
Ortiz's proposal seeks to impose stronger conflict-of-interest rules while ensuring a financial return to the state in the form of royalties and affordable treatments for low-income residents.
SCA 13 has drawn criticism from the 29-member Independent Citizens Oversight Committee in charge of the stem cell agency. While supportive of many concepts in SCA 13, the committee and its chairman, Robert Klein II, have charged that a new ballot measure would delay the sale of bonds to pay for disease-curing research.
Ortiz had hoped the Senate would pass SCA 13 by this week, but Democrats in the upper house instead agreed to send a letter to the oversight...
Senate Democrats believe the proposed measure, State Constitutional Amendment 13 by Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, might clutter the November ballot and would benefit from more deliberation between lawmakers and the stem cell board.
Ortiz's proposal seeks to impose stronger conflict-of-interest rules while ensuring a financial return to the state in the form of royalties and affordable treatments for low-income residents.
SCA 13 has drawn criticism from the 29-member Independent Citizens Oversight Committee in charge of the stem cell agency. While supportive of many concepts in SCA 13, the committee and its chairman, Robert Klein II, have charged that a new ballot measure would delay the sale of bonds to pay for disease-curing research.
Ortiz had hoped the Senate would pass SCA 13 by this week, but Democrats in the upper house instead agreed to send a letter to the oversight...