[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 14 (Wednesday, February 8, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S781-S782]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            ASBESTOS VICTIMS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, as of this morning, 2,262 American soldiers 
have died in Iraq and 17,000, 18,000 have been injured, wounded; over 
16,000 have been wounded so seriously that they could not return to 
battle. Each of these deaths and every one of these individuals who 
have been wounded, many of whom have been maimed, is a national 
tragedy. Yesterday, I was speaking to one of my friends with whom I 
came to Washington in 1982. We keep in touch with each other. He now 
lives in Santa Rosa, CA. He said, ``Harry, you know, we just lost our 
sixth soldier in this little community.''
  I have attended funerals of Nevada servicemen who have been killed. I 
want to make sure we do everything we can so that fewer of our loyal, 
patriotic men and women are not killed in Iraq. I want to make sure 
they have all the equipment--anything they need.
  As we speak, there are other tragedies in America, one of which deals 
with the legislation that is on the floor today. This year, 2006, 
10,000 people will die from asbestos-related diseases. That is the case 
every year. These people did nothing wrong. They were simply exposed to 
a substance that corporate America knew would make them sick and cause 
them to die. But because of corporate America's willingness to exchange 
the lives of these men and women, they went ahead and did this. People 
were exposed to this at work, at home by hugging their father or 
husband when he came home from work, or in a schoolyard where asbestos 
equipment was, in their neighborhoods, in trucks hauling this substance 
all over America, and people got sick. They die painful, slow, horrible 
deaths. So there is a debate going on today dealing with asbestos.
  This is not a fair bill. Look, I believe we need legislation to 
compensate the victims, but this is not it. I have said--and I don't 
have the experience in the legislature of the President pro tempore, 
but I have been in legislative bodies a long time; more than 30 years I 
have served in legislatures. This is the worst piece of legislation I 
have ever seen in the 30-plus years I have been serving in 
legislatures.
  I don't doubt how hard Senator Specter has worked and how badly he 
wants this done, but that doesn't make the legislation good; it is bad. 
Perhaps because he has tried so hard, he doesn't see the trees for the 
forest, as they say.
  To show the strength of corporate America, 13 companies that will 
benefit greatly from this legislation have paid lobbyists, within a 2-
year period of time, $144.5 million. That should send a message to 
everyone. This legislation is not good for asbestos victims. It

[[Page S782]]

strips victims of their legal right to obtain compensation in the court 
system and puts them in an administrative trust fund that is 
underfunded and doomed to fail. That is why all the leading asbestos 
victims organizations oppose this bill.
  Here is a letter from the Asbestos Victims Group United, dated 
February 1, 2006, written to me and to Senator Frist. I will read parts 
of it:

       We represent a diverse group of national asbestos victims' 
     groups. We are writing this letter as a matter of urgency to 
     ask Members to vote against S. 852. This legislation is not 
     primarily intended, nor is it good, for victims. In fact, in 
     its current form, the legislation would make recovery of 
     compensation dramatically worse for victims. It would deny 
     whole classes of cancer-ridden victims, who, today, are able 
     to recover compensation for their injuries, any ability to be 
     compensated.
        . . . We oppose this legislation. We do not want this 
     proposed government policy forced upon us. We believe the 
     program will fail to treat victims fairly, while benefiting 
     the very companies that caused the problem. We have said it 
     before and now we say it louder.
        . . . We have said it before and now we say it louder: We 
     believe it would be wholly irresponsible for Congress to 
     proceed with consideration and passage of this legislation. 
     Please do not allow the families who already have lost so 
     much to be victimized once again.

  The first signatory on this letter is Susan Vento, the wife of a man 
I served in Congress with, who never worked around asbestos--or so he 
thought. But he did work around it as a young man during a summer job 
while in school, and he got this disease. He was a big, strong man who 
worked out in the gym every day, and he died within a year, a slow, 
agonizing death. So the first signatory on this letter is Susan Vento, 
Chairperson, Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims.
  I ask unanimous consent that this letter be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                               Asbestos Victims Groups United,

                                                 February 1, 2006.
     Hon. William Frist,
     Majority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
     Hon. Harry Reid,
     Democratic Leader, U.S. Senate,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Leaders Frist and Reid: We represent a diverse group 
     of national asbestos victims' groups. We are writing this 
     letter as a matter of urgency to ask Members to vote against 
     S. 852. This legislation is not primarily intended, nor is it 
     good, for victims. In fact, in its current form, the 
     legislation would make recovery of compensation dramatically 
     worse for victims. It would deny whole classes of cancer-
     ridden victims, who, today, are able to recover compensation 
     for their injuries, any ability to be compensated.
       If we have not made our position clear in our previous 
     letters, we would like to make it very clear here: We oppose 
     this legislation. We do not want this proposed government 
     policy forced upon us. We believe the program will fail to 
     treat victims fairly, while benefiting the very companies 
     that caused the problem. We may not have the power of these 
     corporations, but we have a voice, and we intend to use our 
     voice to its maximum volume to defeat this bill.
       And, if it passes, we plan to use our voice to inform the 
     American people in every state and every district of this 
     tragic fate of justice and to urge every victim to demand 
     their right of compensation from the federal government.
       We have listed below the specific substantive reasons we 
     oppose S. 852:
       It removes the fundamental right to a trial by jury and 
     replaces it with an untried and unsound entitlement program 
     that, we believe, is set to fail on day one.
       Victims will face long delays in receiving compensation 
     while the fund is set up and the bill is challenged on 
     constitutional grounds. Many victims, especially those with 
     mesothelioma, will die during that time period.
       $140 billion is too low and has been, at best, deemed a 
     questionable minimum by the CBO. For the victim, this means 
     the fund could leave them empty-handed. (For the taxpayer, it 
     could mean excessive Federal borrowing).
       Thousands of victims will fail to qualify because of newer 
     more restrictive legal and medical standards--this is not a 
     ``no-fault'' system. Despite not being allowed into the 
     system, victims will likely be locked out of the trial 
     system.
       The bill excludes thousands who worked at, or lived near, 
     hundreds of addresses around the country where Libby 
     vermiculite was shipped.
       The bill is structured to make it nearly impossible for 
     victims who were exposed to asbestos in their own homes, and 
     who did not live with an asbestos worker, to prove their 
     exposure and eligibility for compensation. Assurances that 
     these people will be taken care of via the ``medical 
     exceptions panel'' are false promises given thousands would 
     fall into this category and the fund will not be able to 
     handle that many cases.
       Trust funds have a dismal history: most have failed, all 
     have been bogged down at the start-up and all have 
     underestimated the amount of claims by large margins, as was 
     shown in the recent GAO Report: Federal Compensation 
     Programs.
       Future victims of asbestos exposure, notably those exposed 
     during 9/11 and Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, will receive no 
     compensation and have no access to the court system.
       Many asbestos victims with lung cancer, particularly 
     smokers, are excluded despite the medical consensus that 
     people with heavy asbestos exposure are at a substantially 
     increased risk of cancer.
       There is no automatic sunset provision--if the fund is not 
     paying claims, victims must be able to gain access back into 
     the courts without relying on the administrator's discretion.
       The bill does not account for those who may have been 
     exposed to naturally occurring asbestos.
       Before allowing this legislation to move to the floor, 
     please consider these questions:
       Will the proposed funding be sufficient to compensate all 
     victims?
       How many victims will be left out from being compensated 
     for asbestos injuries?
       How much will the fund be forced to borrow from the federal 
     government?
       How many companies will contribute and how much will each 
     be assessed?
       Can the bill, if enacted, withstand the numerous legal and 
     constitutional challenges already threatened by a wide range 
     of parties?
       We have said it before and now we say it louder: We believe 
     it would be wholly irresponsible for Congress to proceed with 
     consideration and passage of this legislation. Please do not 
     allow the families who already have lost so much to be 
     victimized once again.
           Sincerely,
       Susan Vento, Chairperson, Committee to Protect Mesothelioma 
     Victims, Washington, DC.
       Linda Reinstein, Co-Founder and Executive Director, 
     Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, Redondo Beach, CA.
       Michael Bowker, Founder and Executive Director, Asbestos 
     Victims Organization; Author, Fatal Deception: The Untold 
     Story of Asbestos: Why It Is Still Legal and Why It Is Still 
     Killing Us, Placerville, CA.
       Jim Fite, National Secretary, White Lung Association, 
     Baltimore, MD.
       Barbara Zeluck, Secretary, White Lung Asbestos Information 
     Center, New York, NY.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I had placed in the Record yesterday one of 
the petitions. We have 150,000 signatures on that--150,000 signatures 
here in the Capitol in boxes. We debate this bill. There is a lot of 
technical talk about startups, sunsets, and payment tiers. But let's 
not lose sight of what this debate is about. It is about whether the 
Senate will keep faith with the victims of a disease which they had no 
opportunity to avoid.
  The problem in America today, as it relates to what is going on on 
the Senate floor, is not a crisis created by the legal system; it is a 
crisis created by the people who expose these people to asbestos. If 
there were ever a cry for fairness and equity and justice, it is this. 
We cannot let corporate America do what they are trying to do to these 
innocent men and women.

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