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Senate sidetracks asbestos trust fund bill - for now

Date Posted: March 3 2006

WASHINGTON (PAI) - By a 58-41 vote, the Senate on Feb. 14 sidetracked a controversial asbestos trust fund bill, at least for now.

Though most senators backed the measure, S. 852, it needed 60 votes to overcome objections by senators who, citing studies, said the $140 billion trust fund for asbestos victims would run out of money, forcing future funding from the U.S. Treasury.

"This bill effectively creates an entitlement for asbestos victims and obligates the government to provide compensation" to them, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. "The government is obligated to pay regardless of the actual amount raised through company contributions...Experts conclude the amount will outpace the contributions to the fund not just in the near term but in the long term as well."

The trust fund would come from payments from asbestos manufacturers and their insurers and would pay the medical bills to suffers of mesothelioma (a form of cancer), asbestosis and other asbestos-caused job diseases over 30-50 years. Construction workers have been hit particularly hard by asbestos-related diseases.

In return for such guaranteed payments, the hundreds of thousands of asbestos-harmed workers who met tough medical criteria for getting a claim, and their families, would be barred from suing for damages in court.

Backers of the bill said it would help 200,000 workers, but a Public Citizen study found 681,756 claims against just eight big asbestos manufacturers alone.

Congress has struggled with establishing a trust fund for years, and this proposal reflects that difficulty. The AFL-CIO and most of their unions, as well as Change-to-Win, lobbied against the bill. The UAW was a notable exception. The White House supported the bill, although it said it has "serious concerns" about certain provisions.

The AFL-CIO bargained for years on the legislation, but walked out over a year ago, when business cut a backroom deal with its plan to bar the worker/victims from court.

Asbestos victims groups also lobbied hard against the bill. They said it short-changes their loved ones and that victims now in court against the manufacturers would be thrown out of it. They also noted new victims - such as those exposed to asbestos from the destroyed World Trade Center and from old buildings smashed by Hurricane Katrina - would be left with no way to get their medical bills paid.

To overcome the budget objection, the measure's backers - a coalition of the largest asbestos manufacturers and their insurers - needed a super-majority of senators, but did not get it. That failure sent S. 852 back to the Senate Judiciary Committee. But Senate Majority Leader William Frist (R-Tenn.), switched his vote to "no" - the winning side in this case - at the last minute so he could later seek to recall the asbestos bill.