Honor Our Living Donors Act

Bill: 119-hr-628
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Obernolte, Jay [R-CA-23]
Introduced: 2025-01-22
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Congressional oversight

Health care costs and insurance

Organ and tissue donation and transplantation
Latest action: action_date: 2025-01-22
text: Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Summaries:
action_date: 2025-01-22
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><strong>Honor Our Living Donors Act</strong></p><p>This bill modifies certain&nbsp;criteria used to determine eligibility under the Living Organ Donation Reimbursement Program, which reimburses organ donors for certain incidental expenses related to organ donation (e.g., travel expenses).&nbsp;</p><p>The bill specifies that the organ recipient's income may not be considered in determining whether an organ donor may be reimbursed under the program. (Currently, an organ recipient's income may not be greater than 350% of the federal poverty guidelines.) Additionally, under the bill, organ donors may be reimbursed regardless of whether the organ recipient pays them (or could be expected to pay them) for their expenses.</p><p>The Department of Health and Human Services must report on whether the program adequately covers the expenses of organ donors, and if not, the amount of necessary funding.&nbsp;</p>

tv_txt: I 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 628 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 22, 2025 Mr. Obernolte (for himself and Ms. DelBene ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Public Health Service Act to eliminate consideration of the income of organ recipients in providing reimbursement of expenses to donating individuals, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Honor Our Living Donors Act . 2. No consideration of income of organ recipient Section 377 of the Public Health Service Act ( 42 U.S.C. 274f ) is amended— (1) by redesignating subsections (c) through (f) as subsections (d) through (g), respectively; (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the following: (c) No consideration of income of organ recipient The recipient of a grant under this section, in providing reimbursement to a donating individual through such grant, shall not give any consideration to the income of the organ recipient. ; and (3) in subsection (f), as so redesignated— (A) in paragraph (1), by striking subsection (c)(1) and inserting subsection (d)(1) ; and (B) in paragraph (2), by striking subsection (c)(2) and inserting subsection (d)(2) . 3. Removal of expectation of payments by organ recipients Section 377(e) of the Public Health Service Act ( 42 U.S.C. 274f(e) ), as redesignated by section 2, is amended— (1) in paragraph (1), by adding or at the end; (2) in paragraph (2), by striking ; or and inserting a period; and (3) by striking paragraph (3). 4. Annual report Section 377 of the Public Health Service Act ( 42 U.S.C. 274f ), as amended by sections 2 and 3, is further amended by adding at the end the following: (h) Annual report Not later than December 31 of each year, the Secretary shall— (1) prepare, submit to the Congress, and make public a report on whether grants under this section provided adequate funding during the preceding fiscal year to reimburse all donating individuals participating in the grant program under this section for all qualifying expenses; and (2) include in each such report— (A) the estimated number of all donating individuals participating in the grant program under this section who did not receive reimbursement for all qualifying expenses during the preceding fiscal year; and (B) the total amount of funding that is estimated to be necessary to fully reimburse all donating individuals participating in the grant program under this section for all qualifying expenses. .