AMHERST - The Center for Inquiry is hoping to infuse more science and secularism into legislative debates on highly charged issues with the opening of a public policy office in Washington.

The office issued its first white paper this week blasting President Bush's veto of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

The Center for Inquiry/Transnational, a think tank whose long-stated mission has been to promote reason and science in all areas of human interest, said its Office of Public Policy is a response to a “cultural war on scientific naturalism and enlightenment in general.”

“We intend to develop relationships with sympathetic legislators in D.C. and will provide experts to testify in legislative hearings,” said Paul Kurtz, founder and chief executive of the center.

Other goals include submitting amicus briefs in U.S. Supreme Court cases and holding nationally televised press conferences on breaking issues.

The office will draw from a large network of fellows and scholars, including Ann Druyan, the widow of Carl Sagan; Nobel laureates including Drs. Herbert Hauptman and Paul Boyer and professors from Harvard University, Columbia University and elsewhere.

“We have a vital role to play,” Kurtz said.

The center said the stem cell debate is one of several public-policy controversies that have illustrated the need for its scientific expertise. It also cited the teaching of “intelligent design” and the controversy earlier this year over a NASA employee's reported attempts to have “theory” attached to references to the Big Bang.

The white paper issued this week charged the Bush administration's view on stem cells was based on “a flawed and indefensible view of the moral status of the embryo.”

In rejecting legislation that could have multiplied the federal money going into embryonic stem cell research, Bush said the bill “would have supported the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others.”

The veto “demonstrates once again that slipshod science and misguided ethics combine to make bad policy,” said the paper, written by Ronald Lindsay, legal director of the think tank's new public policy office

The nonprofit Center for Inquiry has offices in Los Angeles, New York City and Florida, as well as Germany, France, Poland and elsewhere around the world.

While promoting science, the center also is dedicated to debunking myths and claims of the paranormal.