Select Panel Votes are Designed to Drive Researchers, Healthcare Providers Out of Business, DeGette Says

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO) today said tomorrow’s hastily-arranged Select Panel votes are designed to harass researchers and will put their life-saving work at risk.

“Enough with the smear campaigns, fishing expeditions and endless stream of subpoenas,”said DeGette, who is co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus and a senior member of the Panel. “Congressional bullying to drive researchers and healthcare providers out of business is a clear abuse of power and has to stop.”

On Monday evening, Chair Marsha Blackburn announced to media and then to Panel members that on Wednesday they would vote on whether to begin contempt proceedings against StemExpress. Among its wide range of services to researchers around the globe, the small biotechnology company procures fetal tissue with the aim of using stem cells for vital research that will accelerate prevention and cures of significant medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis.

StemExpress was a key target of the deceptively-edited videos created by anti-abortion extremist David Daleiden and the “Center for Medical Progress.” Republican Panel members have embraced Daleiden’s cause from the outset of this investigation.

The Panel will also consider a resolution authorizing Chair Blackburn to release a researcher’s May 11, 2016, deposition.

Chair Blackburn’s broad and burdensome demands for documents and other tactics to imply criminal misconduct by this company and others have had a chilling effect on researchers and healthcare providers, DeGette said.

“Overly aggressive investigations have already drummed one tissue procurement company out of business, created pressure that resulted in a significant drop in donations to StemExpress, and put a stop to promising studies and clinical trials,” DeGette noted. “Dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric by Panel members has been echoed verbatim to justify attacks on healthcare providers, including in Colorado Springs. We have long called for this panel to be disbanded before it does any more damage. This latest stunt is intended only to harass people involved in life-saving work. It is as reckless as it is baseless.”