The Hound Dog December 15th, 2007

Harlan County, Kentucky native Rep. Louise Slaughter, who now represents New York in Congress has a personal interest at stake in stopping Mitch McConnell’s obstruction. She is taking the lead in exposing McConnell’s tactics in obstructing a bi-partisan bill against genetic discrimination that passed 420-3 in the House of Representatives:

GINA would prohibit insurers and employers from discriminating based solely on a person’s genetic information. No one is born with perfect genes and genetic discrimination is something that will affect every single person on the planet.

This bipartisan bill was passed in the House of Representatives earlier this year by a vote of 420-3 and was passed unanimously by the Senate in the 108th and 109th Congresses.

However, using arcane Senate rules, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn (R) has single-handedly been able to put a hold on the bill, not allowing a vote in the Senate this year.

We were able to circumvent Senator Coburn’s hold by getting GINA into the omnibus appropriations bill scheduled to be voted on next week by the full House and Senate.

However, in the negotiations right now and throughout the weekend, Senator Mitch McConnell is trying to remove the bill so it will not get an up or down vote next week, and will continue to be held hostage by Senator Tom Coburn and Senate rules.

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