He stated he will oppose such an amendment but believes the best backstop to the House action is the lack of sixty votes in the Senate for cloture and the President's eventual veto of a bill with such a provision. We can provide resources and speakers, if not the votes on the Floor, for Porter on this matter, if it materializes. He expects a challenge from the right in the primary and from a number of serious Democratic candidates in the general election, including a City Councilman, Wilbur Cohen, whose Dad promoted enactment of Medicare. Since his vote for three articles of Impeachment, Democrats have marched on his office Monday, March 1st, delivering 200 letters in protest and a petition. Porter says he will answer all the letters and is not a tool of the Right Wing having voted his conscience.
Porter depends on Democratic votes to win the seat and asks for our support for re-election.
The process of funding the NIH would be much more difficult without Porter in the House. The description of Preuss' research as an example of how DNA technology developed by biologists with NIH funding is now being applied to plant genomes was very enlightening to the offices we visited. Also, for states such as Maine, that do not have a medical school, plant biotechnology presented an avenue of entry to new enterprises that their local universities could explore. Preuss also visited two Budget Committee Members on FY'2000 budget issues-Sen. We believe that if other issues such as terminator seeds from Monsanto or the safety of genetically engineered fruit and vegetables, which were discussed in a few offices, presents itself again, that Rep. Schakowsky will call on Daphne for advice.