I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5344 
To clarify that pilot programs that honor and reward organ donation are 
not preempted by Federal criminal law and that offering and accepting 
such benefits in accordance with a pilot program are not criminal acts. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 26, 2016 
Mr. CARTWRIGHT (for himself, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HONDA, Ms. EDDIE BER-
NICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. POLIS, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. YOUNG of Alaska, 
Mr. MARINO, and Mr. POSEY) introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To clarify that pilot programs that honor and reward organ 
donation are not preempted by Federal criminal law and 
that offering and accepting such benefits in accordance 
with a pilot program are not criminal acts. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Organ Donation Clari-
fication Act of 2016’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) As of January 2016, 121,000 people await 
an organ transplant, with 100,000 of those people 
waiting for a kidney, and average wait times are ap-
proaching five years for a kidney, with twice as 
many people being added to waiting lists as getting 
a transplant. 
(2) Living donor kidney transplants peaked in 
2006 and have declined since due to a scarcity of liv-
ing donors. 
(3) Of the roughly two million Americans who 
die annually, only 10,500 to 13,800, representing 
less than one percent of all deaths each year, possess 
major organs healthy enough for transplanting. 
(4) On average, 22 people a day died while 
waiting for an organ, with the majority of those peo-
ple waiting on a kidney. 
(5) In 2013 nearly 3,000 people were perma-
nently removed from kidney waiting lists and 2,000 
from liver, heart, and lungs waiting lists because 
they became permanently too sick to receive a trans-
plant. 
(6) 90% of dialysis patients are not employed 
because dialysis requires multiple treatments per 
week which last several hours and leave patients 
drained, thus creating a huge financial burden on 
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the patients, their families, and the government 
which is not included in the cost estimates above. 
(7) A patient receiving a kidney transplant on 
average has an additional 10–15 years of life at a 
much more enjoyable and productive level as com-
pared with remaining on dialysis, while receiving a 
kidney from a living donor providing 4–8 years of 
additional life as compared to receiving a kidney 
from a deceased donor. 
(8) As medical advances extend people’s lives as 
they wait for an organ transplant, waiting lists will 
get longer and the costs for individuals and the Fed-
eral Government will increase significantly. 
(9) Roughly seven percent of the Medicare 
budget goes to the End Stage Renal Disease Pro-
gram, with dialysis costing Medicare over $87,000 
per patient per year, as Federal law dictates that 
Medicare will cover dialysis for everyone who has 
made minimal Social Security tax payments. 
(10) A kidney transplant pays for itself in less 
than two years, with each transplant saving an aver-
age of over $745,000 in medical costs over a 10-year 
period, 75 percent of which is savings to the tax-
payers. 
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SEC. 3. CLARIFICATION OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE 
NATIONAL ORGAN TRANSPLANT ACT. 
(a) RELATION TO OTHER LAWS.— 
(1) GOVERNMENTS ENCOURAGING ORGAN DO-
NATION.—Section 301 of the National Organ Trans-
plant Act (42 U.S.C. 274e) shall not— 
(A) apply to actions taken by the Govern-
ment of the United States or any State, terri-
tory, tribe, or local government of the United 
States to carry out a covered pilot program; or 
(B) prohibit acceptance of any noncash 
benefits provided by the pilot program under 
subparagraph (A). 
(2) NO PROHIBITION ON OTHER BENEFITS PRO-
GRAMS.—Nothing in this section shall be construed 
to prohibit actions, other than actions described in 
this section, taken by any State, territory, tribe, or 
unit of local government in the United States to pro-
vide benefits for organ donation, including pursuant 
to section 301 of the National Organ Transplant Act 
(42 U.S.C. 274e). 
(3) CLARIFICATION
OF
MEANING
OF
BEN-
EFIT.—For purposes of the National Organ Trans-
plant Act, valuable consideration does not include 
the following: 
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(A) Reimbursement for travel, lodging, 
food during travel, and other expenses related 
to donation. 
(B) Provision of or reimbursement for de-
pendent care needs related to donation. 
(C) Reimbursement for lost wages related 
to donation. 
(D) Medical expenses related to donation 
and all related follow up care including prevent-
ative follow up care and medication. 
(E) Paperwork or legal costs related to do-
nation. 
(F) Any insurance policy against the risk 
of death or disability as a result of donating an 
organ or the longer-term health effects of hav-
ing donated an organ. 
(b) DEFINITION.—In this section: 
(1) The term ‘‘organ’’ means the human kid-
ney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas, bone marrow ob-
tained by aspirate, cornea, eye, bone and other mus-
culoskeletal tissue, skin, and heart valves and other 
cardio and vascular tissue. 
(2) The term ‘‘covered pilot program’’ means a 
pilot program approved by the Secretary of Health 
and Human Services, subject to an ethical review 
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board process, with a term of not more than 5 fiscal 
years, for the purpose of measuring the effect of re-
moving disincentives or providing a noncash benefit 
that may increase the organ pool. Distributions of 
organs from deceased donors under the pilot pro-
gram shall be conducted only through the Organ 
Procurement and Transplantation Network at a 
transplant center approved by the United Network 
for Organ Sharing or any other entity designated by 
the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 
Æ 
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