Bankruptcy law now shields your DNA from being sold without permission
H.R. 4492 — Don’t Sell My DNA Act · Filed by Ben Cline (R-VA) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 17, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends federal bankruptcy law to protect genetic information from being sold or used without explicit written consent from the person whose DNA it is. When a bankruptcy trustee liquidates a debtor's assets, genetic data cannot be sold, leased, or used unless every affected person has affirmatively agreed in writing after the bankruptcy case begins. Any genetic information not sold must be securely deleted using approved methods. The law applies immediately to all pending and future bankruptcy cases.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative purpose is to shield genetic information from sale or use in bankruptcy proceedings without affirmative consent. It is a straightforward privacy and bodily-autonomy protection measure.
What the text implies
- Genetic data held by a debtor (e.g., ancestry test results, medical genomic records, or genetic databases) becomes a protected asset class in bankruptcy, potentially reducing the pool of assets available to creditors.
- The requirement for 'affirmative written consent' after case commencement may create practical delays in asset liquidation and increase administrative costs for bankruptcy trustees.
- The bill does not address genetic information already sold or disclosed before bankruptcy filing, leaving a gap in protection for data already in circulation.
- Deletion requirements reference NIST guidelines but do not specify penalties or enforcement mechanisms if trustees fail to comply with secure deletion.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Individuals gain a concrete right to control their own genetic information even when their assets are liquidated in bankruptcy. The bill prevents a trustee from selling or exploiting DNA data without explicit consent, protecting privacy and bodily autonomy at a moment of financial vulnerability.
Named in the bill
Title 11, United States Code (Bankruptcy Code), Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Bankruptcy trustees, Debtors in possession
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Jul 17, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 17, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $100,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 2 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Ben Cline, the sponsor, reported $666,776 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Consuli — $100,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,387 characters) on Nov 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,927 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-11-02.
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