Federal Cord Blood Legislation

The U.S. Congress plays an important role in ensuring that all patients in need of a transplant have access to bone marrow, blood cell or cord blood transplants. Federal support for umbilical cord blood donation and research is essential to increasing patient access to transplant.

Helping patients

In fall 2006, the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) was awarded key contracts to carry out the work mandated in the C. W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program, including the contract to act as the nation’s Cord Blood Coordinating Center.

This act helps patients by:

• Creating the National Cord Blood Inventory (NCBI). The goal of the NCBI is to collect and store 150,000 cord blood units. These cord blood units are used for patients who need a transplant. To continue improving the success of transplants, the NCBI banks will provide additional cord blood units for research.
• Allowing for funding for bone marrow and umbilical cord blood transplantation and research through the NMDP, as part of its role to operate the C. W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program.

As the Cord Blood Coordinating Center, we work with a network of cord blood banks, including the NCBI banks, to recruit expectant parents for umbilical cord donations and to distribute cord blood units listed on our Registry.