Senate HELP Committee Passage of the Living Donor Protection Act (S. 1552)
Is Sign of Momentum Building
Statement from Dr. Jesse Roach, SVP of Government Relations at the National Kidney Foundation
Washington DC (February 26, 2026) - "Today's vote by the Senate HELP Committee shows momentum is building around the Living Donor Protection Act (LDPA). Today's progress reflects years of advocacy by living donors, transplant recipients, and patient leaders who have shared their stories and called for fairness.
The LDPA would prohibit life, disability, and long-term care insurers from discriminating against living organ donors and clarify that donors are protected under the Family and Medical Leave Act during their recovery. These commonsense protections are essential to ensuring that individuals who step forward to save a life are not penalized for their generosity.
More than 90,000 Americans are currently waiting for a kidney transplant. Twelve people die every day while on a kidney transplant waiting list. Living donation remains the gold-standard therapy for many patients, yet barriers continue to discourage potential donors. Advancing this legislation brings us closer to removing one of those barriers.
Thank you to Senators Tom Cotton and Kirsten Gillibrand for their continued leadership on LDPA and to HELP Committee Chair Senator Bill Cassidy and Ranking Member Senator Bernie Sanders moving this life saving legislation forward. We urge Senate leadership to bring S. 1552 to bring to the floor for a vote, and ask House leadership to do the same with companion bills H.R. 4583 and H.R. 4582. Keep the momentum going and continue working in bipartisan fashion to protect and support living donors nationwide.”
About the Living Donor Protection Act
The LDPA would protect living organ donors from discrimination in obtaining life, disability, and long-term care insurance and ensure that they are covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The National Kidney Foundation has led advocacy efforts on the LDPA for nearly a decade, successfully helping to pass similar protections in more than 30 states. NKF is encouraged to see growing support across the transplant and patient community for this new strategy—splitting the bill into two parts to facilitate smoother passage through Congress. H.R. 4582 and H.R. 4583 represent the House companion bills to S. 1552 in the Senate.
You can read more about H.R. 4582 here and H.R. 4583 here.
You can read more about the Senate version of LDPA, S. 1552, here.
About Kidney Disease in the United States
In the United States, more than 37 million adults are estimated to have kidney disease, also known as chronic kidney disease (CKD)—and approximately 90 percent don’t know they have it. About 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. are at risk for kidney disease. Risk factors for kidney disease include: diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and family history. People of Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian American, or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander descent are at increased risk for developing the disease. Black or African American people are about four times as likely as White people to have kidney failure. Hispanics experience kidney failure at about double the rate of White people.
About the National Kidney Foundation
The National Kidney Foundation is revolutionizing the fight to save lives by eliminating preventable kidney disease, accelerating innovation for the dignity of the patient experience, and dismantling structural inequities in kidney care, dialysis, and transplantation. For more information about NKF, visit www.kidney.org.
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Media Contact: Paul McGee
paul.mcgee@kidney.org or 716.523.6874