Last year, Senator Enzi and I wrote and passed new legislation strengthening GINA protections so that personally identifiable genetic information collected through Federal research can never be made public.

There are recommended standards. Yes, ma'am.

So we are not there now.

I believe there is work to be done. Yes, ma'am.

I have to say when you charge differentially, $1,500 or sometimes more, and that can happen because people do not want to reveal very sensitive, personal medical information.

Telling people it will cost you $1,500 if you do not reveal very sensitive medical information, I think, stretches the bounds of what constitutes voluntary.

Well, we have been tested on that numerous times and were never accused of discrimination during the 10-year life of the program.

So this is some really sensitive information, and it is supposed to be voluntary to hand it over.

taxpayers watch when we've granted exclusivity to these companies, and then they watch as the prices go up, and there's not a darned thing for taxpayers to do about it. This is just fundamentally wrong.

I looked it up, and the organizations who are testifying here today spent a combined total of $30 million lobbying Congress last year.

How about the Federal Government competing and actually having some competition and saying, 'We're going to negotiate prices.'