US Asbestos Bill Gets Another Sponsor
Date: 27-Apr-05
Country: USA
Author: Susan Cornwell
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter announced at the end of a hearing on the bill that Republican colleague Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had signed on as a co-sponsor.
That means five of the ten Republicans and two of the eight Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are now co-sponsors.
Specter from Pennsylvania and co-author Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, will need at least three more votes to get the proposal approved by the committee.
Specter, said it was his "current anticipation" to bring the bill up for a vote at a meeting set for Thursday.
But he will need to overcome doubts about the project expressed Tuesday both by witnesses and lawmakers, who queried the proposed fund's viability, legality, and fairness.
A group of companies and insurers called the Coalition for Asbestos Reform told Tuesday's hearing the plan to make companies and insurers finance the fund amounted to an "unconstitutional taking of private property."
But Edward Becker, a federal appeals judge who has helped broker compromises among various groups affected by the asbestos legislation, was confident the plan could prevail.
"My view is that a constitutional challenge would fail," Becker told the committee.
Specter also dismissed the constitutional concern. "The business of taking property without due process of law is when someone is being savaged. Nobody is being savaged here," he told reporters.
Asbestos fibers have been used in building materials, auto parts and other products for decades, but are linked to cancer and other diseases. Hundreds of thousands of injury claims have forced many companies into bankruptcy.
The proposed fund would cap the liability of companies and their insurers facing asbestos litigation. Victims would no longer be able to sue, but would go to the fund for payment.
There were no obvious further converts to the bill on the Democratic side Tuesday, but on the Republican side, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions said he had "no doubt" lawmakers could create an asbestos compensation fund.
Democrat Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois made clear he was not supporting the bill. He angered Specter when he said the hearing was a "bloodless" exercise focusing on the fund's mechanics while ignoring victims of asbestos, many of whom do not want to lose their right to sue for compensation.
"You could have called victims" as witnesses, Specter replied, adding he and his staff had met with victims' groups.
Manufacturers testified in favor of the fund, while insurers said they could not support the bill in its current form, and labor representatives who testified were divided.
Outside the hearing, a new labor group endorsed the fund. "The current system (of filing claims) is unfair to injured workers," said a letter to lawmakers from The International Union of Operating Engineers, which claims 400,000 members.
But a member of the House of Representatives has decided to pursue a different approach to curbing asbestos lawsuits. Rep. Chris Cannon, Republican of Utah, will announce on Wednesday he is introducing a bill that establishes medical criteria for filing asbestos claims in court, his office said.
