Washington, DC, July 13--The co-author of a bill creating a $140 billion asbestos compensation fund said on Tuesday he was still pushing for it to be brought to the Senate floor in July, but the Senate's majority leader said no decision had been made on the timing.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said he was still urging the asbestos bill to be brought forward despite criticism of the bill, the crowded legislative calendar and a looming Senate battle over a successor to retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
"I'm pressing to bring it up in July," Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he had not ruled out July, but there was no decision on when to bring the measure to the floor.
"I really just don't know the timing," Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said in a separate conversation with reporters outside the Senate.
Asbestos was widely used for fireproofing and insulation until the 1970s. Its fibers are linked to cancer and other diseases and injury claims have bankrupted dozens of companies.
The asbestos bill, which Specter co-sponsored with Vermont Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy, would halt asbestos injury lawsuits and pay the claims from a privately financed fund instead.
But it is a complicated piece of legislation that is opposed by various interest groups, and would probably require days if not weeks of work on the Senate floor.
Some Senate aides say the outlook for bringing it up in July has dimmed, especially in light of the coming Supreme Court nomination, which could sidetrack work on many issues.
Without knowing when Bush will name his choice for the Supreme Court, the Senate is trying to work out its priorities for the next three weeks, before a scheduled August recess.
"There are a lot of moving parts to the leader's schedule, and he's got to figure out when to make everything fit right," Sen. Jon Kyl said after a meeting Tuesday with Frist and other Republican leaders where asbestos was among issues discussed. Kyl, of Arizona, is the Senate Republican policy chairman.
Kyl was one of seven Judiciary Committee Republicans who signed a report last week saying they still had serious reservations about the asbestos bill although they voted for it in committee. Among other things, they are worried some victims could sue asbestos companies after the trust fund is set up.
"I think the more palatable we make it to people the quicker it will get through the Senate, and one of the objects here is not to have it hang around for a month on the Senate floor," Kyl said of the asbestos bill.
But even with members of the Republican majority carping at the bill, Specter thought the measure could pass. "You never know until the roll is called, but I think so," Specter said.
"This is the kind of bill that will never satisfy everybody but you have to bring it up and vote on it," he said.
