GINA cleared for a vote in the Senate!

We just learned that Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has just agreed to lift his hold on the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) and allow it to come to a vote in the Senate. The bill will be debated for 2 hours and then come to a unanimous consent vote with no amendments.

If passed, GINA will prevent people from being discriminated against in the workplace or for health insurance purposes because of a genetic predisposition or family history of a disease. The bill passed the house twice this session, most recently as an add on to the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act last March.

Senator Coburn had placed a hold on GINA, but never fully explained why. The bill has been around for 15 years and the President has expressed his support for it at least twice. Coburn has actually voted in favor of the bill on two occasions, but placed a hold on it after the House passed it the first time in 2007.

This is the first forward looking piece of civil rights legislation in US history. The protections it provides are essential for establishing any kind of real personalized medicine. there are 44 cosponsors on the Senate bill as of now and it has passed the Senate several times in previous sessions, so it is highly likely that it will be smooth sailing barring anything truly strange.

UPDATE: Senator Coburn has now placed a hold on the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act, which authorizes $40 million a year to be spent on studying the link between breast cancer and environmental influences.