WASHINGTON (AP) -- New rules meant to direct more donated organs to the sickest transplant patients were in serious jeopardy Thursday, despite a deal last week that would have allowed them to take effect by early January.
In a late-night move, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott on Wednesday slipped language into a bill extending popular tax credits that would put the rules on hold for at least four months and probably longer, said Dan Mendelson, associate director for health for the Office of Management and Budget.The move came despite a high-level deal negotiated between congressional negotiators and the White House last week that would have allowed the transplant regulations to take effect in January.
The new language would require a 90-day delay, then HHS would have to issue the rules again, which would mean another 30-day delay for public comments.
A delay would give Congress time to return next year and pass pending legislation that would strip HHS of its power to set these rules in the first place.
The rules first were proposed in February 1998, but Congress has kept them on hold since then.
"They cut a deal with us in appropriations, and they turn around and they break that deal," Mendelson said.
For nearly two years, the Clinton administration has been fighting over this issue with many transplant centers around the country and their allies in Congress who fear lucrative transplant programs would lose donated organs to larger programs with sicker patients.
Supporters of the system argue that local distribution encourages people to donate organs, knowing they will stay in the area.