Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, praised Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Friday for breaking with President Bush and supporting a House bill that would allow greater federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.

Besides gaining another vote for the bill, Frist gives Hatch and a handful of other pro-stem-cell-research GOP senators some political cover on the controversial issue.

There are political risks in the stands by Frist and Hatch — both of whom consider themselves pro-life conservatives.

Frist, R-Tenn., is an unannounced presidential candidate in 2008. And while his "modified" stand on federal funding for stem-cell research may harm his chances of getting conservatives to support his bid, it may just be the extra push needed to get a veto-proof majority vote in the Senate.

And just a week ago, state Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, announced that he is challenging Hatch within the Republican Party in 2006. A number of issues differentiate the men, said Urquhart, one being stem cell research.

For his part, the president has threatened to veto the House's Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. The act would expand federal funding for such research, keeping the use of stem cells to otherwise discarded embryonic cells in fertility banks.

The measure has enough votes in the Senate to pass, said Adam Elggren, Hatch's press aide. "The question is whether it has enough votes (in the Senate) to get past a filibuster or veto override," said Elggren.

Hatch said, "Today is a good day for biomedical research. Today is a good day for the American public.

"This is a significant and most-welcome breakthrough," he said, "and I am encouraged that with the majority leader's support we can expect swift action in the Senate and overwhelming bipartisan passage for legislation to expand ethical embryonic stem cell research."

The Associated Press reported that Frist has been working for months to build a consensus on how to bring the act up for debate and passage in the Senate.

That debate will likely come after the August congressional vacation.

Frist said, "I strongly support newer, alternative means of deriving, creating and isolating . . . stem cells, whether they are true embryonic stem cells or stem cells that have all of the unique properties of embryonic stem cells. . . . It's time for a modified policy."

In an eight-page statement, Frist, a medical doctor and heart transplant surgeon before coming to the Senate, said that Bush's original stem cell plan may have been adequate when adopted in 2001.

But Bush's requirement that federally funded research could come only from existing stem cell lines is, today, too restrictive.