By Alabama Public Radio
Washington, DC – Congressman Artur Davis has been sponsoring a bill that would establish a national databank of umbilical cord blood and bone marrow. President Bush signed it into law Tuesday. Now, doctors will be able to more quickly find a match for patients who need a transplant. The measure provides 79 million dollars in federal funding to increase the number of cord blood units available for matches. The objective is to get 150-thousand units. That would mean about 90 percent of the patients needing them would have a match. The House passed the bill back in May, but the Senate finally approved it last Friday.