A day after President Bush vetoed legislation that would have expanded federal support for embryonic-stem-cell research (The Chronicle, July 19), Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California made a loan of as much as $150-million to the state’s institute for stem-cell studies, the Los Angeles Times reported this morning.

California voters in 2004 approved the issuance of $3-billion in bonds to finance the research (The Chronicle, November 12, 2004), and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine was created to run the program. But anti-abortion and taxpayer-rights groups have filed lawsuits that have blocked the institute from awarding any grants to scientists (The Chronicle, February 28, 2005).

The loan, which amounts to four times as much money as the National Institutes of Health spends on stem-cell research, would allow the institute to start making grants. The loan would be repaid if the lawsuits are rejected in court—as seems likely, based on a judge’s initial ruling (The Chronicle, April 24)—and the $3-billion in bonds can thereby be issued.