By Ellen Arnold

How a small group of advocates took on the far right wing in Texas and won, and won, and won…

"That would pretty much shut her down in Texas,” State Senator Steve Ogden, chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, opined in reference to the rider he had successfully attached to the state’s biennial budget in the waning days of the 81st Texas Legislative Session in 2009. The language of the rider:

“No funds appropriated under this Act shall be used in conjunction with or to support research which involves the destruction of a human embryo.

The potential impact is devastation to Texas research institutions. In a quick vote without a public hearing, testimony or discussion, Ogden attached a rider to the State’s budget bill, the only bill that is constitutionally mandated to pass, that would have effectively restricted all academic institutions, both public and private, from receiving state funds if human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research is conducted within their facilities. This language would have restricted the three billion dollars designated for cancer research being conducted at the newly established Cancer Prevention Research Institute (CPRIT), as well as research on other life threatening diseases. Texas would lose world-class researchers, their staffs and research grant money to other states.