Advocates Push Congress to Pass the Living Donor Protection Act

The American Kidney Fund convened a July 21 briefing on Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to pass the Living Donor Protection Act. The event is part of a renewed push to pass the bipartisan legislation (H.R. 4583/S.1552), which would ensure that individuals who donate an organ for transplantation can take job-protected leave for surgery and recovery.

Members of the American Nephrology Nurses Association (ANNA), including National President-Elect Molly Cahill, met with lawmakers in June and noted that the Living Donor Protection Act is one of their legislative priorities.

More than 97,000 people in the United States are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. Receiving a kidney from a living donor statistically has the best outcomes for transplant recipients, but many barriers to living donation remain. Advocates say that risking job loss and higher health insurance bills shouldn’t be among those barriers.

“The Living Donor Protection Act was first introduced in 2014 — that's over a decade of waiting for protections that living organ donors desperately need,” ANNA stated online. “The average bill takes about seven years to get through Congress, but in today's political climate, that timeline is getting even longer.”

"People who step up to donate a kidney are making an incredibly selfless decision, and they deserve to be supported and protected," said LaVarne A. Burton of the American Kidney Fund. "The legislation we have been fighting for represents a bipartisan solution that ensures living donors are protected, not penalized, for their extraordinary generosity.

The Kidney Foundation of WNY asks Congress to pass the Living Donor Protection Act. We thank Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-NY) and Representative Claudia Tenney (R-NY-24) for being cosponsors of this important legislation. New York State adopted its own Living Donor Support Act at the end of 2022.

Track the Living Donor Protection Act's progress in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.

Groups that have affirmed their support for the Living Donor Protection Act include: the American Association of Kidney Patients, American Council of Life Insurers, American Heart Association, American Liver Foundation, American Society of Nephrology, American Society of Pediatric Nephrology, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, American Society of Transplantation, Dialysis Patient Citizens, Global Liver Institute, IGA Nephropathy Foundation, International Society of Glomerular Disease, Kidney Transplant Collaborative, National Kidney Foundation, the Nonprofit Kidney Care Alliance (NKCA), North American Transplant Coordinators Organization, the PKD Foundation, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO), and the Renal Physicians Association.

See the July 21 press release from the American Kidney Fund: https://www.kidneyfund.org/article/american-kidney-fund-urges-congress-protect-living-organ-donors