October 21, 2005
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has pledged to bring a $140 billion asbestos trust fund bill to a vote early next year, according to Sen. Arlen Specter, one of the legislation’s sponsors.
Asbestos was widely used in the U.S. for insulation and fireproofing before it was identified as a human carcinogen. Since then, hundreds of thousands of injury claims have left dozens of U.S. companies bankrupted.
To resolve the asbestos legal issues, bills were pushed to approve a trust fund that would halt the lawsuits and pay claims financed by asbestos defendant companies and their insurers. The asbestos bill has been a major point of debate because critics have said it relieves liability from companies while short changing victims of asbestos related deaths and illnesses.
In May, the bill was voted out of the Judiciary Committee that Specter chairs, but Frist has not brought it to the Senate floor yet. When outlining the contents of a spending bill for the Labor Department and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Specter mentioned the asbestos bill.
Specter said the Labor-HHS spending bill includes a $2 million for start-up costs for administering asbestos claims. Adding he was “not counting any chickens” on the asbestos bill passing, the spending bill also contains $1 billion for a registry and tissue bank for mesothelioma victims.
Contact us for more information on asbestos claims.
