[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 32 (Tuesday, February 20, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E163-E164]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     GRATITUDE TO CITIZEN ADVOCATES

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 20, 2024

  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to include in the 
Record an important article from consumer advocate, lawyer, and author 
Ralph Nader that celebrate the determination and courage of citizen 
activists like Nadia Milleron. Nadia's daughter, Samya Rose Stumo, 
tragically died in a plane crash when the defective Boeing 737 Max she 
was in, crashed in Ethiopia on March 10, 2019, killing all 156 people 
on board. Nadia was determined to fight for justice, and successfully 
pushed for action to ensure that the families of victims of such 
tragedies could collect punitive damages. Her story is an inspiration 
that should be read by all as a reminder that in our democracy, one 
person truly can make a difference.

              That Lady from New England Who Shamed Us All

                             (Ralph Nader)

       The mass media is reluctant to recognize civic heroes 
     unless they display physical bravely such as rushing into a 
     burning building to save a child. The media also lavishes 
     vast coverage on sports heroes and entertainers.

[[Page E164]]

       Unnoticed by the mass media was how it came about that the 
     Illinois legislature, overcome by corporate lobbyists, passed 
     legislation allowing punitive damages for wrongful death 
     disasters, and sent the bill to Illinois Governor J.B. 
     Pritzker who signed it last Friday.
       In the words of one state lawmaker, this effort started 
     with ``that lady from New England who drove down here (to 
     Springfield, Illinois) and shamed us all.'' That lady was my 
     niece Nadia Milleron, who lost her daughter Samya Rose 
     Stumo--an emerging leader in global health--to the defective 
     Boeing 737 Max that crashed in Ethiopia on March 10, 2019, 
     killing all 156 people on board. (Earlier on October 29, 
     2018, a similar also new Boeing 737 Max crashed off 
     Indonesia's coast, killing all 189 passengers and crew.)
       Nadia was determined that families in the future who lost 
     their loved ones to reckless corporate actions and crimes 
     would not be told by Illinois courts that, were people 
     rendered disabled, they could collect punitive damages--but 
     not if their lives were taken. The cruel absurdity of this 
     perverse rule that lets companies escape punitive damages 
     under the law of torts (wrongful injuries) if their 
     recklessness or greed kills their victims, but not if they 
     injure them, was too much for Nadia to tolerate.
       Driven by her love of Samya and her determination to end 
     this gross injustice, she spent months away from her 
     Massachusetts home in 2022 getting appointments with every 
     Illinois Assembly person--177 of them--to plead her case in 
     person. None of the naysayers she encountered in the lobbying 
     circles around the legislature deterred her, not even some 
     plaintiff trial lawyers.
       By the sheer force of her legal and factual arguments, her 
     moral authority and a few senior political advisors in 
     Chicago, she laid the groundwork for action earlier last 
     year. The Illinois Wrongful Death Act was championed by a 
     young African-American state lawmaker, Rep. La Shawn K. Ford. 
     Once it started moving through the Assembly (with little 
     media attention) it gained momentum among the new Assembly 
     leadership that carried through to the new leadership of the 
     State Senate. Both legislative Houses are controlled by 
     Democrats.
       Nadia came to this challenge in Illinois, where the Stumo 
     family civil tort litigation against Boeing is pending, with 
     experience in battling the giant Boeing corporation's power 
     to get its way in Washington, DC. For months after Boeing's 
     homicides in Ethiopia (See, September 16, 2020, News Release 
     from the House Committee on Transportation), Nadia and her 
     husband Mike (both non-practicing lawyers), with the help of 
     their two articulate sons, and other relentless, bereaved 
     families, worked the corridors and offices of Congress, 
     pressing for public hearings and legislation. Their efforts, 
     punctuated by public demonstrations, culminated in the 
     passage of federal legislation to start the process of 
     strengthening air safety regulations.
       The Stumos and their family network also focused on the 
     derelict FAA which, over the years, had transformed itself 
     from a supposed aviation safety regulator to a weak, 
     consultant's role. The agency literally delegated regulatory 
     decisions and inspections to deputized Boeing employees on 
     the factory floor and in the design offices. Boeing and other 
     aircraft manufacturers made sure that Congress did not object 
     and indeed had Congress facilitate this delegation, including 
     by keeping the FAA's regulatory budget and skilled staff too 
     small to regulate directly and forcefully.
       Nonetheless, with astute and newsworthy press conferences 
     and accurate responsiveness to media inquiries, the families 
     pushed the FAA to be a little more hands-on and probing than 
     it was up to 2019.
       When the punitive damage bill passed the Illinois 
     legislature, Governor Pritzker had 60 days to either sign it 
     or let it become law. He chose to sign it on August 12th 
     without any ceremony, without having Nadia, the young 
     Assemblyman Ford and other senior state lawmakers by his 
     side. Had he made it an event, he would have memorably 
     conveyed the key motivating belief in a democracy--that one 
     person can make a difference!
       Citizen Nadia blazed the way, shaming the foot-dragging 
     Illinois Trial Lawyers Association (ITLA) into jumping on the 
     bandwagon in Springfield once the bill's momentum grew.
       On February 27, 2023, I wrote a letter to the President of 
     the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, Patrick A. Salvi II, 
     wondering why the ITLA hadn't pushed this initiative over 
     many past years and urged them to ``make the maximum effort 
     to secure passage.'' Trial Lawyer Associations do not usually 
     answer letters, but this one got through, with copies to 
     other interested parties. (See the letter here).
       Our country, over time, has been helped immeasurably by 
     outraged mothers (and fathers) turning their unabating 
     mourning over the loss of their children into laser beam 
     intensity behind health and safety laws to save other parents 
     and children from similar tragedies. (Note e.g., Mothers 
     Against Drunk Driving).
       These civic heroes defy all odds to challenge and prevail. 
     The odds don't faze them; they have a higher calling to 
     achieve.
       Unfortunately, neither Governor Pritzker nor the mass media 
     seized this dramatic moment for exemplary recognition. The 
     law, however, now is on the books to further more humane and 
     deterrent purposes, thanks ``to that Lady from New England 
     who shamed us all.''

                          ____________________