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ATLA: U.S. Senate halts $20 billion corporate bailout bill for asbestos companies
Flawed bill would have left many victims with nothing
(2/15/2006) - The Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) reports that the U.S. Senate on Tuesday blocked S. 852, the asbestos bailout bill, after only 58 Senators voted to waive the Congressional Budget Act, short of the 60 required.
“The Senate had the opportunity to create a fair trust fund for victims, but instead chose to bring to the floor a bill that gives a $20 billion bailout to the asbestos companies that knowingly poisoned people but leaves many victims with nothing and others facing impossible bureaucratic hurdles,” said Ken Suggs, President of ATLA, in a press statement.
“The top priority of the US Senate in developing an asbestos trust fund should be making sure that victims poisoned by asbestos through no fault of their own get the help they need, but S. 852 is nothing but a corporate bailout at victims’ expense,” said Suggs.
According to the release, ATLA was actively engaged in the effort to try to develop an asbestos trust fund that would fully and fairly compensate victims, participating in the Senate Asbestos Summit in 2003, and the negotiations led by Federal Judge Edward Becker in November 2004.
According to ATLA, internal corporate documents have revealed that companies continued to put people at risk decades after they knew asbestos caused cancer and other diseases, and didn’t tell workers of the risk. To date, 300,000 Americans have died of asbestos disease, and asbestos continues to kill at least 10,000 a year.
According to ATLA, S. 852 was opposed by a bipartisan coalition of Senators, the AFL-CIO as well as a number of labor unions, the insurance industry, taxpayer rights’ organizations, and a large number of the companies affected by the bill.
Though the bill’s supporters claimed to be working on behalf of victims, every major asbestos victims’ organization in the country opposed the bill, and last week, victims delivered more than 150,000 petition signatures to Capitol Hill to voice their opposition to the bill, according to ATLA.
If the bill had passed, many victims would have been left with nothing. For example, victims exposed after the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and veterans whose exposure in the service was not long enough to qualify for the fund would be excluded from receiving any help. Those who would qualify for the fund would face long delays and bureaucratic hurdles.
For more information, visit ATLA’s Web site.
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