Congress has agreed to establish a national databank of umbilical cord blood and bone marrow.
The databank would allow doctors to quickly find a match for patients who need a transplant.
The Senate passed the bill by voice vote. The House passed the bill in May.
The bill will provide 79 (m) million dollars in federal funding to increase the number of cord blood units available for matches. The objective is 150-thousand units, which would mean 90 percent of patients needing them would have a match. It also reauthorizes the national bone marrow transplant system, combining it and the cord blood in the same database.
The bill had been stalled while lawmakers argued over a farther-reaching plan that would lift restrictions on stem cell research, which President Bush has signaled he would veto.
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On the Net:
Information on the bills, H.R. 2520, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov
