[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 149 (Wednesday, October 22, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13061-S13062]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           WORK OF THE SENATE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I wish to take a moment to congratulate 
Chairman McCain and Senator Burns and others who have fought so hard 
for the anti-spam legislation that passed not too long ago tonight.
  Although I am disappointed we have not been able to proceed to 
conference on the CARE Act, I am very hopeful that ultimately we will 
be able to do that and I am very hopeful we will at some point receive 
unanimous consent to do just that.
  Today's vote, 97 to 0, on the anti-spam legislation, reflects a lot 
of the hard, bipartisan work--both sides of the aisle--that was put 
into the anti-spam bill. I do thank all of our colleagues who have 
worked so diligently on this legislation.
  We started on this bill about 2 o'clock today and we had final 
passage 4\1/2\ hours later. I am very hopeful we can continue with this 
sort of efficient movement on the floor of the Senate for the remaining 
issues we have this year.
  We do continue to work toward an agreement on a range of issues. They 
include Healthy Forests and the Internet tax moratorium, which is 
currently being worked on.
  The CARE Act, as my colleagues can tell, continues to be a challenge, 
but I hold out the hope that we will be able to send that bill to 
conference. Senator Rick Santorum has done just a superb job in 
shepherding that bill through the Senate. The companion bill has passed 
the House of Representatives, and indeed it is time to address it in 
the conference.
  We are also looking toward an agreement on fair credit reporting 
which does have strong bipartisan support in this body. There are very 
few objections. I hope we can take care of that in short order. We will 
continue to push very hard for that particular bill.
  Also today, we addressed an issue on which we can't give up. We can't 
really accept as the final punctuation mark the outcome of the vote 
today where we had 59 Senators say it is time for us to solve the class 
action challenge before this body. We didn't have 60 Senators. We had 
59--1 short. If we had just one other colleague come forward and say, 
yes, this is a problem for the American people, it is a problem for our 
economy, it is a problem for our families, we would have been able to 
proceed with class action reform.
  I want to take a couple of minutes and comment, because I didn't have 
the opportunity earlier today, on the importance of class action 
reform. I should preface that by saying that just yesterday I came to 
the floor to talk about my upbeat optimism for really the first time in 
the last several months with regard to our economy.
  That is in part for having traveled around the country this past 
weekend and talked to a lot of people in various occupations and 
various jobs. You can just see and sense and you can feel that 
increased consumer optimism that is around the country.
  Indeed, we had some very good economic numbers, some of which I 
mentioned yesterday. The Department of Commerce reported that 
consumption is strong in this third quarter. Consumption grew by an 
annualized rate of over 12 percent. Many economists say this third-
quarter consumption may be the strongest in almost 4 years.
  New housing starts are annualized to be about 1.9 million based on 
the results from last month. That is probably the highest in terms of 
housing starts in the last 17 years. Production from our factories 
increased 3.5 percent in this quarter. It had been negative the quarter 
before that. The Department of Labor also delivered the report that 
initial jobless claims are at their lowest levels since February and 
that in August the nonfarm sector employment rose by 57,000 jobs.
  All of that I think is very encouraging news. As these economic 
indices continue to improve, with some lag time, that is translated 
into increased jobs. But that is not enough. We have a lot we can do 
and we should be doing on the floor of Senate. We need to have smart 
progrowth fiscal policies because we know that helps create jobs. It 
gives job security for those who are currently working.
  I am optimistic that we are going to see this continued improvement 
in the economy, but equally importantly in job creation.
  The sort of structural problems we need to address: Taking action on 
class action reform. Class action lawsuits are a problem. What makes it 
even more important for us to address now is it is a problem that is 
getting worse with time. A recent survey found that State court class 
action filings skyrocketed by 1,315 percent in just 10 years. The 
result of this glut of claims--many unnecessary, many frivolous 
claims--is that it clogs the State courts, it wastes taxpayer dollars, 
and it inhibits innovative in entrepreneurship that we all know is so 
crucial to job growth. All the purported victims ever get in this 
sordid process is a little coupon--a measly little coupon. I say that 
not just figuratively but literally.

  A couple of examples:
  In a suit against Blockbuster, plaintiffs' lawyers alleged that their 
clients were being fleeced by excessive late fees. They sued the video 
rental chain for restitution. The result was that each of their clients 
received a $1 coupon offer for future rentals while the

[[Page S13062]]

lawyers at the same time pocketed over $9 million. What is interesting 
is that, meanwhile, Blockbuster was allowed to continue that same late 
fee practice that the lawsuit was ostensibly launched to end--$9 
million to the lawyers and a $1 coupon--but the practice continued.
  You say that is outrageous and it couldn't be. It is a fact.
  Another anecdote and equally outrageous had to do with Coca-Cola and 
apple juice. What happened a few years ago was the plaintiffs' lawyers 
charged that the Coca-Cola drink company was improperly adding 
sweeteners to its apple juice. These plaintiffs' lawyers, who were 
parading as vigilant deans of public health, managed to secure--yes, 
once again--a 50-cent coupon for the apple juice victims but the 
lawyers received $1.5 million.
  If you think that is outrageous, in a class action suit against the 
Bank of Boston plaintiffs actually lost money when their accounts were 
drawn down to pay their lawyers $8.5 million in fees.
  That is large business. Also, these large suits have a direct impact 
on small businesses. These small businesses get drawn into this feeding 
frenzy that is going on around the country. What happens is that in 
order to avoid going to Federal court, the class action legal team will 
rope in local small businesses in the area as codefendants in order to 
get that case decided in--it may be an adjacent county or an adjacent 
State--a favorable State. Once the window during which the real class 
action target can remove the case to the Federal court closes, that 
unlucky mom-and-pop shop that happened to be in the wrong county or the 
wrong town at the wrong time is dropped from the case, but not before 
they have had to invest considerable sums of money in this process of 
defending themselves.
  Such lawsuits are frivolous. Such lawsuits are unnecessary. They are 
wasteful and they translate into a burden on our economy, a burden on 
our judicial system, a burden on taxpayers, and clearly a burden on the 
practice of law. Who can help but be cynical about a system which we 
have today that awards lawyers millions of dollars over an apple juice 
sweetener dispute?
  So this can't go on. Too many of these lawsuits are little more than 
operations which shake down these small businesses or these large 
businesses.
  Oftentimes the lawyers are counting on the company to pay a sizable 
settlement just to avoid that higher cost of going to court. 
Companies--whether big or small--should no longer be subjected to this 
blackmail, which is wrong and unfair. It needs to stop.
  Today, we tried to take this issue to the floor of the Senate so it 
could, once and for all, be addressed. Indeed, a majority--it was a 
bipartisan majority--of Senators said, yes, it is a problem; yes, it 
deserves to be debated in the Senate; yes, several may have wanted to 
amend it; yes, it is time to address this issue which is a burden on 
the taxpayer. It is a burden on working men and women. It is a burden 
on small businesses. It is a burden on families.
  That was a majority. But in this body it takes 60 votes, not just a 
majority, 60 of 100 Senators to say, yes, we are going to address that. 
We only had 59.
  I hope my colleagues will come back to the table. As majority leader, 
I promise I will stay on this issue until we have it resolved. It may 
take constituents around the country saying, yes, it is important to 
call Senators, to talk to Senators and encourage Senators in town 
meetings, to say, yes, it is important to address this problem.
  I hope my colleagues recognize the significance of this issue to our 
economy and to working families.
  If one more person came forward, we would be able to address this 
once and for all. That would be good for the country. It would be good 
for the law. It would be good for the economy. And it is good for the 
legitimate claims that are out there and should be fairly and 
appropriately settled.

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