Congress authorizes overhaul of troubled organ transplant system

Congress approved a thorough revamp of the troubled U.S. organ transplant system Thursday, providing health officials with the authority to break monopoly control of the way kidneys, livers, lungs and other organs are delivered to sick patients.

For 37 years, one nonprofit organization, the United Network for Organ Sharing, has held the federal contract to run the system, relying on a 1984 law that blocked almost all competition. With a unanimous vote Thursday night, the Senate rewrote the law to let the federal Health Resources and Services Administration break that stranglehold and solicit bids from other for-profit and nonprofit groups.