Bill honoring Stephanie Tubbs Jones signed into law

President Bush signed into law Tuesday the “Stephanie Tubbs Jones Gift of Life Medal Act of 2008,” legislation that honors organ donors and will give the agency that organizes organ transplants an additional $5 million in funding each year.

Tubbs Jones, 58, was the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress. She died unexpectedly on Aug. 20 from a brain aneurysm.

The bill provides for the establishment of the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Gift of Life Medal for organ donors and families of organ donors.

The Treasury Department will design and produce a commemorative medal that the Department of Health and Human Services will award to organ donors or to a surviving family member.

The medals will be produced at no cost to the federal government, and will be funded by charitable contributions.

The bill also provides for a huge funding boost for the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which has been funded at $2 million a year since 1984.

This bill raises the annual funding level to $7 million, Congressman Steve LaTourette, R-Bainbridge, said.

LaTourette said Tubbs Jones was a fierce advocate for organ and tissue donation and donated her own organs and tissue upon her death. Local hospital officials have said her gift may help as many as 58 people.

“This law is a great tribute to my dear friend, Stephanie Tubbs Jones. We all knew of her generosity in life, and she was just as generous upon her death,” LaTourette said Wednesday.

H.R. 7198 was introduced to honor Tubbs Jones after her death by U.S. Rep. Fortney Pete Stark (D-CA). U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced the companion bill in the Senate.

WKYC