GINA Prepares for November Debut

GINA is starting to take shape.  President George W. Bush signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) on May 21st of last year.  Effective November 21, 2009, Title II of GINA:

"prohibits the use of genetic information in employment, prohibits the intentional acquisition of genetic information about applicants and employees, and imposes strict confidentiality requirements."

The text of the Act is available on GovTrack. On March 2, 2009, the EEOC published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The public comment period ended on May 1, 2009 and the comments are published on Regulations.gov.  Additionally, the EEOC has published background information in the form of a brief Q & A.  This document provides a great, plain English overview of the new Act.  So what's up next?  A Final Rule, which the EEOC believes will be published "well in advance" of GINA's November 21st premiere.