[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 83 (Friday, June 23, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6452-S6453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    COMMENDATION OF TIMOTHY E. LESHA

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I welcome this opportunity to commend the 
exemplary work of Tim Leshan, who is leaving the National Human Genome 
Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health to become the 
director of government relations and community affairs at Brown 
University.
  For the past 5 years, Mr. Leshan has served the National Human Genome 
Research Institute with great distinction. As branch chief of policy 
and program analysis at the Institute, he provided focus and leadership 
in numerous areas of public policy on genetics.
  He served as the congressional liaison during the completion of the 
Human Genome Project and the International HapMap project, and was the 
Institute's planning and evaluation officer.
  As liaison to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the 
White House, he has facilitated contacts between the director of the 
Institute and numerous Federal, State, and international policy makers.
  Mr. Leshan has guided policy development for the Institute on issues 
relating to genomic medicine, intellectual property, and regulation of 
genetic tests. He has also facilitated the resolution of complex policy 
issues for all of NIH with respect to the National Library of 
Medicine's PubChem database, and provided technical assistance to the 
House and Senate appropriations committees and authorizing committees. 
He also had a particularly important leadership role in the development 
of legislation against genetic discrimination and on privacy 
protections for genetic information.
  He has provided impressive technical advice to many of us in the 
Senate in drafting legislation on genetic nondiscrimination and health 
disparities. One of Tim's major regrets as he leaves the Institute is 
not having seen the passage and signing of genetic nondiscrimination 
legislation. Hopefully, action on that legislation will be completed 
before the end of the current session of Congress, and I am sure Tim 
will be there at the signing as a principal adviser for all of us on 
the bill.
  Before joining the Institute, Mr. Leshan was the director of public 
policy for the American Society for Cell Biology, where he cofounded 
the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical

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Research, and staffed the Joint Steering Committee for Public Policy. 
Earlier, Mr. Leshan had worked in government relations at the Kennedy 
School of Government at Harvard University, and also at Duke 
University.
  Through his contributions to public policy, health, and privacy, Mr. 
Leshan's work has exemplified the best of government service, and the 
impact that such dedicated service can have for the Nation as a whole.
  I extend my warmest wishes to Mr. Leshan in his new responsibilities 
at Brown University, and on behalf of the Congress and the country 
gratitude for his outstanding service to NIH, Congress, and the 
country.

                          ____________________