Congress requests IoM report on CB

The Congressional Record shows that Congress did not act on the Cord Blood Stem Cell Act of 2003 (bills S1717 and HR2852). Congress passed HR2673, the Omnibus Spending Bill for fiscal year 2004. This includes $10 million appropriations for a National Cord Blood Inventory to be administered by the Human Resources Spending Agency (HRSA). The exact language of the requires that the first $1 million be spent to commission an Institute of Medicine study which will decide how best to distribute the funds. The remaining $9 million will not be released until the study is complete (the IoM report eventually came out in April 2005).