[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17030-17031]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            ASBESTOS UPDATE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I would like to report briefly on where 
things stand on the asbestos negotiations Senator Daschle and I have 
been conducting for the last couple of months.
  There is wide agreement that the current asbestos litigation system 
is disastrous for victims, for jobs, and for the economy.
  More than 700,000 individuals have filed claims; approximately 
300,000 claims are still pending; more than $70 billion has already 
been spent trying to resolve these claims; and more than 70 companies 
have filed for bankruptcy as a result.
  And yet we have very little to show for it. We have a system where 
the sickest victims of asbestos exposure have to wait in line with 
thousands of unimpaired claimants.
  There are many things that we in Congress cannot agree upon. But 
everyone can agree that this system is a mess and must be fixed.
  Senators Hatch and Leahy ironed out a unique solution to the problem. 
They created a no-fault trust fund for claimants funded by business and 
insurance that would pay truly sick claimants fair claims values in a 
prompt manner.
  S. 1125 embodied this idea and was reported out of the Judiciary 
Committee in July of 2003. That bill provided $108 billion in mandatory 
funding for claimants.
  On April 7, 2004, Senator Hatch and I, along with Senators Miller, 
DeWine, Voinovich, Chambliss, Hagel, and Domenici, introduced a 
substitute bill, S. 2290. S. 2290 increased the funding for claimants 
to $114 billion.
  Unfortunately, on April 22, that bill only received 50 votes on the 
floor of the Senate. Why? The opponents' primary complaint was that the 
funding was insufficient.
  I did not want to give up on finding a solution to this crisis. 
Fortunately, neither did the Democrat leader. So we met and decided to 
ask Judge Becker, a respected Third Circuit Court of Appeals judge who 
had been working on asbestos issues with Senator Specter, to try to 
mediate the parties' differences. He did so over a 2-week period in May 
and was able to get Organized Labor to move from $153 billion to $149 
billion.
  The business and insurance side of the equation moved from the $114 
billion into the mid-$120 billion range. But no deal was reached.
  In June, the minority leader and I met again and agreed to try to 
negotiate this matter between us, along with the help of the interested 
parties.
  Soon after those negotiations began, the business side made yet 
another move, this time offering to fund a $131 billion trust fund. 
They were told that was still insufficient.
  So, at my request, Senator Daschle put together a proposal. He 
proposed a $141 billion trust fund. He also indicated how his side 
believed the start up of the fund and pending claims should be handled, 
among other issues.

[[Page 17031]]

  In response, I encouraged the business and insurance communities to 
make their best and final proposal on the size of the fund. I told them 
that the end-game was near and that it was time for them to do the best 
they could in terms of a proposal.
  As a result, they made a huge move and agreed to fund a $140 billion 
trust fund, with roughly $40 billion funded in the first 5 years.
  Now here is the rub. Time is running out. It is now the end of July, 
and we are set to begin a long recess. We only have 21 days left in 
this session of Congress to get a bill completed.
  So I sat down with Senator Daschle earlier this week to try to push 
negotiations forward. To get a bill, we must begin to tackle the tough 
issues.
  Those tough issues concern funding and pending claims. Because we 
have reached the bottom line for business and insurance when it comes 
to funding, it is time to intensify negotiations on the so-called 
``start-up'' and ``pendings'' issues.
  Business and insurance will not agree to a $140 billion trust fund 
and, simultaneously, continue to pay massive sums for ongoing 
litigation. Either a trust fund is the solution to our problems or it 
is not.
  I have asked Senator Daschle to let me know whether he believes his 
side can move in our direction and not permit leakage in the tort 
system. If so, substantial progress can be made.
  Today, I received a letter from Senator Daschle and 12 other 
Democrats expressing their commitment to ``work over the August recess 
to narrow our differences and secure a compromise that provides 
necessary relief to victims and businesses.''
  I deeply appreciate their steadfast commitment to this issue and look 
forward to hearing from them about how we can solve the asbestos 
litigation crisis.

                          ____________________