Political Quotes

“Mr. President I wish today to applaud the passage of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this legislation that prohibits health insurance companies and employers from discriminating against individuals based on their genetic information. I would also like to take this opportunity to commend Hadassah for their relentless advocacy over the past 11 years on this important civil rights issue. Hadassah is a founding member of the Coalition on Genetic Fairness and has been a leader fighting to outlaw genetic discrimination. As a Senator from Maryland, the home of the National Institutes of Health and cutting edge companies like Celera Genomic, genetic testing and its implications for Marylanders and all Americans is especially important to me. This bill provides necessary protections so that people will take advantage of the potential that genetic testing can offer, without losing their job or their health insurance. Montgomery County in Maryland was the first county in the Nation to pass genetic nondiscrimination legislation. It has been a longer road for Congress. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act was the first bill passed out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, HELP, Committee in this Congress. I sit on the HELP Committee and we have worked on this bill since 1996. We have conducted five hearings on genetic discrimination and this bill has passed out of our committee three times.”