The Board of Regents decided at its teleconference Wednesday to officially oppose two bills currently before the Iowa Legislature.

The board has also solidified its position regarding further potential cuts to this year’s budget.

A bill that would make embryonic stem cell research illegal in Iowa and a bill that would make all 4-H programs free of charge without increasing state funds for the program, were both opposed by the Regents.

The board’s unanimously approved position on the budget is “the Regent institutions should not receive additional budget restrictions in Fiscal Year 2002.”

The regents decided to leave decision-making about where funds should come from up to the Legislature.

Gary Steinke, Iowa State’s director of government relations, said the board’s position reaffirms what the board has said in the past.

“The board wants to put forth the most reasoned and broad-based approach it can,” Steinke said.

Board of Regents Executive Director Gregory Nichols said the budget is a “very major and ongoing concern.” Nichols said additional cuts to the regent institutions this year would be unfair and impractical.

Thursday, state officials will hear revenue projections for this year and projections for next year. Decisions about the budget will be made soon after.

There are several proposals for dealing with the continued budget crisis being discussed at this time, including: the potential for another across-the-board budget cut of 2.6 percent, an option of protecting K-12 education from the cuts, implementing state employee furloughs and utilizing the economic emergency funds.

The board said it is vital that funding for the School for the Deaf and the Braille and Sight Saving School be protected from further cuts.

President Gregory Geoffroy said the most important thing now is getting the message to the Legislature.

“Individual people talking to individual legislatures about the budget reductions is important,” he said. “This is the political process of negotiating an outcome. We have to wait and see.”

The board decided to oppose Senate File 2118 and House File 2119 regarding human cloning. The board said the language of the bill would make it illegal to use a human embryo for research, imposing criminal penalties. This would make Iowa’s embryonic stem cell research regulations more stringent than federal regulations. The board said this raises concerns in economic and medical development.

University of Iowa President Mary Sue Coleman said the university does not support human cloning, but recognizes the importance of stem cell research.

“We do not believe human beings should be cloned. We think that is immoral. But this research holds great promise for the future,” she said.

David Skorton, U of I vice president for research administration, said the university and the state would suffer greatly if the bill passes.

“This bill could make it illegal to perform stem cell research, regardless of funding,” Skorton said. “We will be left out of the game completely if this bill passes.”