Washington, DC, January 6--Businesses facing asbestos claims are chafing at the latest draft bill aimed at limiting their liability, even as President George W. Bush on Wednesday increased pressure on parties to broker a deal.
Bush said Congress needed to act this year to improve the system handling the huge volume of asbestos claims, which he said were beyond the capacity of U.S. courts.
"They need to act and get the job done. I look forward to signing an asbestos reform in 2005," the president said in Collinsville, Illinois.
Hours before, U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief Thomas Donohue in Washington indicated trouble with current efforts, saying a draft bill for a privately financed national asbestos compensation fund has "gone too far" and is too expensive.
Donohue said the author of the proposal, Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, should change the bill or business leaders who have backed a compensation fund would search for other ways to limit their liability.
"It appears from the reaction of a number of groups in the business community ... that this negotiation, where it is, has gone too far," Donohue told reporters during a discussion of the organization's agenda for the year.
Curbing litigation against business, including asbestos related companies, is a major priority for Bush and many other Republicans. Bush plans to focus on asbestos again on Friday in Michigan, where the auto industry has been sued by workers who worked around brake parts with asbestos fibers.
Asbestos was widely used for fireproofing and insulation until the 1970s. Scientists say inhaled fibers are linked to cancer and other diseases.
Specter, the incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Tuesday he planned to hold a hearing next week on his draft legislation. It would take asbestos claims out of the courts and compensate victims instead from a trust funded by asbestos defendant companies and insurers.
Specter has left open the fund's overall price tag, but the last number known to be on the table in recent talks was $140 billion. While many in the corporate world say this is too high, organized labor says at least $149 billion is needed.
Business groups have long wanted Congress to find a way to curb asbestos claims, which now number in the hundreds of thousands. But Donohue said the fund's expected cost as well as Specter's plan that claimants could return to court if the fund doesn't work, went beyond what business could support.
"It's gone too far and people are now beginning to get together and talk about how to bring it back to where it ought to be, or find another option," he said.
Donohue said some business groups had written to lawmakers to complain. One letter to Specter obtained by Reuters complained the payments companies would have to make to the fund would exceed asbestos-related costs they now face.
