Washington, DC, May 31, 2006--Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) are renewing their relentless effort to secure Senate passage of a bill to replace the asbestos-litigation system with a $140 billion trust fund, but they continue to face considerable obstacles, according to The Hill.
On Friday, Specter introduced a new version of the bill and again warned that the Senate faces a do-or-die moment. This bill represents his last stab at the issue, he vowed.
“If this amended bill is rejected, I do not see the agenda of the Senate Judiciary Committee revisiting this issue,” Specter, the panel’s chairman, said on the floor Friday. “Let me make clear that this is the last, best chance,” he said.
Brinksmanship may be the only available strategy. Those opposed to the Specter-Leahy bill are entrenched and formidable and have a successful track record.
Senate Democrats are all but united against the bill, despite Judiciary Committee ranking member Leahy’s intimate involvement in its drafting. A handful of conservative Republicans, such as Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), worry that that when the trust fund runs out the government will be left to pick up the tab.
Lobbying interests ranging from trial attorneys to labor unions to conservative tort-reform advocates have been able to counter the influence of the bill’s big-business proponents for three years.
The fundamental purpose of the legislation has not changed. The measure proposes the creation of a fund, financed by corporations and insurance companies, that would dole out compensation to victims of asbestos exposure. Currently, victims seek compensation through the courts.
Specter and Leahy sought to update the bill to address some specific concerns raised during the February floor debate. For example, among other changes, the latest bill includes a new formula to set how much smaller companies would have to pay into the fund. Some medium-size and small companies have complained that the original version would have cost them more than simply dealing with any asbestos-related lawsuits they face.
Although Specter has earned the gratitude of Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and many in the conference for his record as chairman, which includes the confirmations of two conservative Supreme Court justices and his recent role in advancing the immigration-reform bill, the chances of asbestos returning to the floor are slim.
Foremost among Specter’s challenges is meeting the onerous conditions Frist has placed on the bill’s return. When an earlier version narrowly failed to overcome a budgetary point of order raised by conservatives in February, Frist said there was only a slight chance the Senate would reconsider the bill. He specified that Specter and Leahy would need to produce a letter signed by 60 senators promising to vote against the point of order and in favor of the underlying legislation.
The majority leader’s office confirmed yesterday that Frist is maintaining that strict standard.
“If he can show that there is 60 senators behind this effort, then [Frist] will work to bring this back to the Senate floor,” a spokeswoman said.
Leahy himself identified another barrier to the Senate’s taking a fresh look at the bill: election-year politics. “I know that some partisans will claim that we should refrain from reaching across the aisle during an election year,” he said in a statement.
Supporters of the original bill quickly and predictably embraced the new version and issued statements laced with compliments for the Specter and Leahy and exclamations of optimism that tweaking the legislation would get it over the 60-vote threshold it has failed to meet.
continues -
