Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act Of 2007

Floor Speech

GENETIC INFORMATION NONDISCRIMINATION ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - April 25, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 493, of which I am a cosponsor. As science continues to make rapid advancement in the area of genetics, I cannot stress how important this bill is to every American citizen.

Genetic testing has increasingly become an integral part of the American health care system, providing the possibility to develop better therapies that are more effective against disease and allow individuals to take steps to reduce the likelihood that they will contract a particular disorder. However, as knowledge of the human genome expands, a greater proportion of the population will likely be identified as carriers of mutations associated with a greater risk of certain diseases, indicating that virtually all people are potentially victims of genetic discrimination in health insurance.

Along with the increasing prevalence of genetic testing comes the growing fear of the potential misuse of this information by way of discrimination in health insurance and employment. Accordingly, we need to strengthen current laws at both the Federal and State level in order to protect against the possibility of genetic discrimination. This bill will go a long way in making sure that this highly private information cannot be misused or abused.

In closing, I want to thank the primary sponsors of this legislation, particularly Ms. Slaughter, I know how long she has worked on this, along with Ms. Eshoo and others. We finally came together in a bipartisan fashion to bring up what I think is a bipartisan bill. They should all be commended, all of us should be commended for our efforts. I think that this could serve as a model for bipartisan cooperation on other bills.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source