[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 44 (Thursday, March 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2898]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         IN SUPPORT OF H.R. 956

  (Mr. TIAHRT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, today we are going to address H.R. 956, 
common sense product liability reform. In the last 40 years we have 
passed one product liability reform bill. What has it done? It was 
passed for single-engine aircraft. And in the Fourth District of Kansas 
it has created 7,000 jobs, thanks to the vision of Russ Meyers who 
heads up Cessna Aircraft.
  In 1977, we were building over 13,000 aircraft in the single-engine 
aircraft business. And Cessna was building over half of those. By 1986 
they had to quit building aircraft because of lawsuits. By 1994 they 
were down to 600 single-engine aircraft and many of them were built 
overseas.
  Product liability reform works and the choice is clear. If you 
protect trial lawyers who are getting rich from lawsuits--they get over 
50 cents of every dollar in the cost of a lawsuit--or you created jobs. 
It is lawsuits or lunch buckets. I support more lunch buckets and less 
lawsuits. Let us pass H.R. 956.

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