The United States Senate has passed legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) that would extend the amount of leave in each calendar year available to federal workers who serve as living organ donors from 7 days to 30 days. The Organ Donor Leave Act is a straightforward way to ensure that federal employees who serve as an organ donor have sufficient time to recover from an organ transplant operation.
The Akaka measure, introduced on July 1, 1999, was unanimously approved by the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, where the Hawaii Senator serves as the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on International Relations, Proliferation, and Federal Services, with jurisdiction over civil service issues. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent.
"I am confident that by providing federal employees, who voluntarily give this gift of life, with adequate leave will lead the way to private companies offering similar leave provisions," Akaka said. "Since 1954, when the first kidney transplant was performed, there have been hundreds of patients who have received successful transplants from living donors. Unfortunately, there are not enough organs available and over 55,000 Americans currently wait for a life-saving organ.
"There are certain organs, such as a single kidney, a lobe of a lung, a segment of the liver, or a portion of the pancreas, which may be transplanted from a living donor. These operations can reduce the mortality of small children needing liver transplants, help another person breath, or free a dialysis patient from daily treatment. Leading transplant specialists agree that when these operations are done on an elective basis and before a recipient becomes extremely ill, the outcome will be better."
Current law allows federal employees only seven days of paid leave for organ donations. The bill will increase the amount of leave to 30 days. In most instances, an organ transplant operation and post-operative recovery time for a living donor is generally six to eight weeks. The amount of leave for a bone marrow donation would remain at seven days because experience shows that a week is considered adequate recovery time from bone marrow donations.
Senator Akaka's bill enjoyed bipartisan support and was cosponsored by 11 Senators, including Senator Bill Frist (R-TN), one of the nation's leading transplant surgeons and the only active surgeon in Congress. During markup of the bill, Akaka asked that the Senate bill [S. 1334] and the House-passed bill [H.R. 457] be approved so that the Senate could vote on H.R. 457, in order to eliminate any delay in sending the bill to the President, who is expected to sign the measure shortly.
