The House Committee on Education and Labor on Wednesday approved a bill (HR 493) under which employers and health insurers could not discriminate against U.S. residents based on the results of genetic tests, the Wall Street Journal reports (Zhang, Wall Street Journal, 2/15). Under the legislation, employers could not make decisions about whether to hire potential employees or fire or promote employees based on the results of genetic tests. In addition, health insurers could not deny coverage to potential members or charge higher premiums to members based on the results of genetic tests (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 2/1). The legislation includes some small differences from a similar bill (S 358) approved last month by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Prior to passage of the bill, the House committee approved an amendment that would limit the definition of "family member" to a blood relative within four generations and would revise the definition of "genetic testing" to account for prenatal tests. In addition, the committee passed an amendment that would require employees to separate genetic information from personnel files. The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee must approve the bill before the full House votes on the legislation (CongressDaily, 2/15). The full Senate likely will vote on the bill within two weeks. President Bush has said that he would sign the legislation.

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Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), a co-sponsor of the House bill, said that the legislation would "encourage Americans to seek out preventive health care and participate in clinical trials critical to finding cures for some of our most deadly genetic-based diseases." Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH, said that the legislation would encourage more individuals to seek genetic tests to determine their risk for colon cancer and other diseases. However, Michael Eastman, executive director of labor policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that the bill would encourage discrimination lawsuits against employers and would affect the collection of health information by employers. Neil Trautwein, a vice president at the National Retail Federation, said that the legislation is "really based on the politics of fear and anecdote and not on reality and reason." IBM supports the bill but said Congress should monitor implementation of the legislation to prevent "expansive interpretations" (Wall Street Journal, 2/15).

APM's "Marketplace Morning Report" on Thursday reported on the House bill. The segment includes comments from Slaughter (Niiler, "Marketplace Morning Report," 2/15). A transcript and audio of the segment are available online.

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