One of Missouri’s two freshmen members of the US House has had a key role in last week’s passage of the bill expanding federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Congressman Russ Carnahan of St. Louis was a co-sponsor of the bill. He says people from Washington University, which is in his district, have told him the bill is critical to research. Carnahan says the bill is narrowly focused to avoid abuse and he says critics who claim the research will lead to cloning are wrong. The bill is now in the US Senate.