House of Representatives Passes Unanimous, Bipartisan Genetic Discrimination Bill
NWI-Led Coalition For Genetic Fairness Continues to Press Congress

On April 25, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (H.R.493) passed the House of Representatives.  Representative Slaughter (D-NY) and Representative Biggert (R-IL), GINA’s lead sponsors, spoke to the need for protections against genetic discrimination and thanked the House chairs of the committees of jurisdiction for their work to move the bill.  Members of the House from both sides of the aisle stood in support of GINA and called for a favorable vote on the legislation.  The bill was passed with a 420-3 vote under the suspension of the rules.  While this is an important advancement for workers and patients rights, much more work remains ahead.  This bill must now be approved by the U.S. Senate.

The Coalition for Genetic Fairness, an alliance of civil rights, patients’ and health care organizations and industry co-founded by NWI Legal Director Jeremy Gruber continues to urge the Senate to pass comprehensive federal legislation outlawing genetic discrimination. The Coalition is continuing the fight to enact such legislation by working with active members of Congress and their staffs to create broad bipartisan support and awareness of the issue by testifying before Congress and meeting with individual members as well as developing organizational and grass roots support.

The staff of the National Workrights Institute has been actively pursuing a federal response to the problem of genetic discrimination for well over 15 years. NWI staff served on the genetic testing advisory council of the (then) Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and assisted in writing its 1990 report. Institute legal director Jeremy Gruber was present at the White House for the announcement by President Clinton of an executive order prohibiting genetic discrimination by federal agencies in 2000 and has testified before Congress on this issue. He remains an active and critical participant on this issue, working with members of Congress and their staffs, the White House and the business community.