Specter Rethinks Subpoena for Gathering Asbestos B
Washington, DC, July 1-- Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter appeared to back away on Thursday from a threat to subpoena information from companies facing asbestos lawsuits, and set up a meeting with company representatives to try and get the data.
On Thursday morning, Specter said he may try to subpoena the information he needed from companies about how they would finance a $140 billion asbestos victims' compensation fund he is proposing.
But by Thursday evening, Specter told reporters he had reconsidered and did not think a subpoena would be the best approach. He also said he would be trying to get the information from companies in a meeting on Friday.
"I have another session tomorrow morning with manufacturers, to get more information about who is paying what," Specter told reporters after a meeting with Republican senators to discuss the asbestos bill.
As for a subpoena, he said, "I thought about it and talked to a lot of people about it and it just didn't seem to be a good idea. I think we can get as much with a carrot as with a stick."
Financing of the proposed asbestos fund is one of the thornier issues Specter needs to resolve as he tries to build support for his bill in the Senate.
The chamber's deputy majority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, emerged from the meeting with Specter and said he thought the bill would be brought to the Senate floor "in the near future".
Asbestos was widely used for fireproofing and insulation until the 1970s. Scientists have linked inhaled fibers to cancer, and injury claims have bankrupted dozens of companies.
Specter's bill to halt the lawsuits and pay claims from a fund instead was approved by the Judiciary Committee in May. Companies facing the lawsuits and their insurers would finance the fund.
Asbestos manufacturers and other companies that acquired asbestos liabilities through mergers and acquisitions would have to pay $90 billion over 30 years according to a complicated formula in the bill that considers past expenditures on asbestos litigation.
But some senators say they won't back the bill without knowing more details of the financing. Some fear smaller companies would be asked to shoulder too much of the burden, and seek a list of who would pay what amounts.
The companies, meanwhile, have been unwilling to discuss the details of what they individually expect to pay, saying they fear this will make them targets of more asbestos lawsuits.
Under the bill, insurers would be responsible for $46 billion. They don't have a formula in the bill for their contributions, and this week a group of them told Specter they had never pledged that much to the fund.
