As one of only four Californians on the powerful and influential House Commerce Committee, Anna Eshoo, D-Atherton, understands both the weight of complex issues and the danger of simple answers. From federal environmental laws and communications policy to the nuances of Medicare and the national science budget, the second-term representative from California's 14th District often is asked to analyze, evaluate and vote on matters of profound importance to both the Bay Area and the University of California. None is perhaps more significant to UCSF than the bill to reauthorize the National Institutes of Health, a proposal that has been stalled for two years by those who question the morality of fetal tissue research.

"It is important for Congress to reauthorize the NIH because the American people need and want it to happen," says an impatient Eshoo. Indeed, President Clinton's 1998 budget asks for a $300 million increase in the NIH budget to $12.3 billion, a sum Eshoo believes the 105th Congress will approve -- and perhaps enlarge -- even if the reauthorization impasse is not resolved. "When it comes to making its case, the NIH (under the leadership of UCSF Nobel laureate Harold Varmus) is a persuasive advocate for its interests." Moreover, Eshoo remarks, some of the brightest and most skilled members of the House are now serving on the appropriations subcommittees. Still, the outcome remains in doubt. And although the failure to reauthorize the NIH does not jeopardize this research juggernaut, it does suggest an official reticence about science that is neither in keeping with general congressional sentiment about the value of the NIH nor the spirit of the times.

Perhaps no event captured this spirit of scientific discovery more aptly than the successful animal cloning experiment announced in Scotland two months ago. The announcement sent shock waves through the US, already uneasy about some of the ethical implications of human genetics research.

Congress reacted with similar alarm, but in Eshoo's estimation now seems ready to ponder the scientific and ethical issues carefully and slowly. "It would be foolhardy to try to decide anything about the very dimensions of human existence in a tiny time frame. The race for scientific discovery is a marathon, not a sprint, and we as legislators need to be equally patient."

1st appeared 4/16/97