WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate moved Tuesday toward sending a bill expanding federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to President Bush, who has promised a swift veto - his first.

Neither the Senate nor the House is expected have the two-thirds majorities necessary to override the president's opposition.

Yet, the bill's supporters predict the government eventually will pay for the research because a wide majority of the public want scientists to pursue treatments that many say carry great promise for curing diseases that afflict millions of people.

"This is a vote that millions of Americans are watching," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill." They can't understand why America for the last five years has shut down medical research that promises hope."

Bush stood fast, with midterm elections just ahead and the Republicans' congressional majority at stake.

"He would veto the bill," the White House said in a written statement, underlining the words for emphasis. It would be the first veto Bush has cast during his 5? years in office.

The White House statement quieted speculation by supporters that Bush, perhaps persuaded by new science and strong public support for embryonic stem cell research, would reverse course and sign the legislation.

The bill would allow federal funds to be used in research on embryonic stem cell lines derived from fertility treatments that would otherwise be discarded. Though several Republican Senate leaders support the measure, many GOP lawmakers oppose it, as do conservative voters with whom Bush wants to maintain credibility.

"The bill would compel all American taxpayers to pay for research that relies on the intentional destruction of human embryos for the derivation of stem cells, overturning the president's policy that funds research without promoting such ongoing destruction," the White House said.

Bush on Aug. 9, 2001, restricted government funding to research using only the embryonic stem cell "lines" then in existence, groups of stem cells kept alive and propagating in lab dishes.

There has been muscular opposition to the president from those with personal stories of illness, death and the promise of stem cell research.

Former first lady Nancy Reagan lobbied lawmakers on the bill's behalf. Her husband, President Reagan, died in 2004 after a long deterioration from Alzheimer's disease, one of several illnesses that researchers say stem cell research might cure someday.

"She is still restless on this issue," Kennedy said.

Everybody, it seemed, had a personal story to tell on the Senate floor where such intimacies aren't routinely shared.

"I lost a beautiful daughter some years ago to heart disease," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., saying he would support the bill because the affliction is one of many that embryonic stem cell research might eventually cure. "I wondered then and I wonder now and I will wonder some long while if there's anything that we could do to unlock the mystery of that devious killer."

Opponents of the bill, meanwhile, sought to put faces on the reasons why the five-day-old embryos destroyed during the research are worth more than the advances to which they might lead.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., appeared with three children adopted from in vitro fertilization clinics in an effort to humanize the argument that frozen embryos could have a future other than being subjects of stem cell research.

"It is immoral to destroy the youngest of human lives for research purposes," Brownback said. "It is an age-old human debate, whether you allow the stronger to take advantage of the weaker. We have already regretted doing it in the past; we will regret this, too."

Opponents of the bill also rejected arguments that only leftover embryos from fertility clinics would be used.

"Just because the budding lives would not survive does not mean that we should ghoulishly conduct experiments on them," said Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky. "Who knows how many human embryos we will have to destroy before any tangible progress is made?"

Neither house has demonstrated the two-thirds majority of votes needed to override a presidential veto. Vote counters on both sides said they expected the Senate to pass the bill with at least 60 votes, but they could not predict there would be the required 67 for a veto override.

The House last year fell 50 votes short of a veto-proof margin when it passed the same bill, 238-194.

After Senate passage, Bush was expected to veto the bill early Wednesday, followed by the House's override effort.

Two related bills also were scheduled for votes Tuesday in both the House and Senate. One, sponsored by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would encourage study on stem cells derived from sources other than embryos. The other, sponsored by Santorum and Brownback, would ban so-called fetal farming, the possibility of developing fetuses, then aborting them for scientific research.

Both have little or no opposition and Bush was expected to sign them.

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On the Net:

Information on the bill, H.R. 810, S. 3504 and S. 2754, may be found at http://thomas.loc.gov