April is National Donate Life Month. This is a month to raise awareness about the life-saving importance of organ donation.
There happen to be over 103,000 Americans on the national organ transplant waiting list.
We should have confidence our organ transplant system is efficient and also fair. Sadly, my oversight dating back as far as 2005 has uncovered decades of corruption and mismanagement in that system.
It has left vulnerable patients to die. They’re on the waiting list while unused organs from generous American donors go to waste.
Speaking of waiting lists, I’ve been concerned about the reports of those on the waitlist being skipped over. This furthers the distrust in the organ donation system.
Through my bipartisan oversight and the 2023 U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network law that we passed, the federal government is making long overdue changes.
The law improved the management and oversight of our organ transplant system and encouraged participation from competent and transparent contractors.
To build on those reforms, in March, the President signed a continuing resolution that provided authority for the Department of Health and Human Services to collect registration fees from organ transplant member institutions.
This action by our President ensures the 2023 law can be implemented properly.
I encourage all Americans to consider being organ donors and understand the impact it can have on saving lives.
So, when you get your drivers license, you can tell them you want to be an organ donor and it [will say] right there on [your] drivers license.
And of course, besides encouraging people to be organ donors, I’m keeping a close eye on how the federal government is implementing this new law that we passed in a bipartisan measure to give more people the chance at a life-saving transplant.
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