Marburger is a graduate of Princeton and received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford in 1967.  He is currently Director of the  U.S.  Department  of  Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory.  Be- fore joining Brookhaven, he served as President of the State University of New York at Stony Brook from 1980 to 1994.  Marburger also served as Chair- man of the Physics Department at the University of Southern California. It had been rumored that previ- ous  candidates  were  told  that  the Science Advisor would not have an active role in Bush Administration policy development, but Marburger’s planned role and authority have not been made public. n n Conservative Senate Surgeon Backs Stem Cells Amid Congressional hearings and dueling press conferences on stem cells, all talk came to a halt on the morning of July 18 as Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) first rose to speak in the Senate chamber and later before a packed hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Edu- cation. He announced his support for embry- onic stem cell research. Frist, a heart and lung transplant sur- geon before entering politics, is highly re- garded in the Senate, particularly on matters of science and medicine. Both Democratic and Republican Senators of- ten defer to the judgement of “The Doc- tor” on these issues.  In addition, Sen. Frist serves as the Chairman of the important Republican Senatorial Campaign Com- mittee, the organization charged by the Republican Party with electing Republi- cans to the Senate, providing him additional influence with the President as he wrestles with his own decision on stem cell research. Sen. Frist has outlined a ten-point proposal on human stem cell research: 1.   ban embryo creation for research 2.   continue the funding ban on derivation of embryos for research 3.   place a ban on all human cloning 4.   increase funding for adult stem cell re- search 5.   allow  only  the  use  of  blastocysts  that would otherwise be discarded 6.   require a rigorous informed consent pro- cess 7.   allow a limited, yet still undetermined, number of stem cell lines 8.   establish a strong public research over- sight system 9.   establish an ongoing scientific review of stem cell research, and 10. strengthen fetal tissue research. The Senate hearing where Sen. Frist testi- fied also included the release of a report by the National Institutes of Health that details the merits of research into both adult and embryonic stem cells and advocates for both types of work.  The report is at www.nih.gov/ news/stemcell/scireport.htm.   n n ASCB Responds to Biomedical Research Amendment During Senate floor debate on the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act, commonly referred to as  the  Patient’s  Bill  of  Rights,  Sen.  Sam Brownback (R-KS) introduced an amendment to prohibit human germline gene modifica- tion. Unfortunately, the amendment would have effectively outlawed basic biomedical research.  Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), sponsor of the Patient’s Bill of Rights,  con- tacted the ASCB to appeal to Brownback to withold the amendment.  Members of the ASCB Public Policy Committee from states with key Republican Senators contacted their Senators to urge them to not support Sen. Brownback and his amendment.  The Senate debated the amendment late on the evening of June 28.  The next morning, just as the Sen- 14                             Continue The ASCB  Newsletter,  Vol  24,  No    8 John  H.  Marburger Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN)