Asbestos bill at critical stage, Specter says

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A proposal for a $140 billion asbestos compensation fund will be put in the “deep freeze” unless lawmakers soon agree on the details, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter warned on Tuesday.

Specter, author of the draft bill to take asbestos injury claims out of court and pay them from the fund, said the proposal is at a critical stage and would be removed from his committee’s agenda in the next few weeks if feuding continues on the fund’s size and other issues.

"Now is the breakpoint,” he said in an opinion article published in The Washington Times newspaper. “Prompt compromises will have to be forthcoming if this critical legislation is to become law or relegated to the deep freeze.”

Asbestos was widely used for fireproofing and insulation until the 1970s. Scientists say its inhaled fibers are linked to cancer and other diseases.

Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, has proposed the fund pay hundreds of thousands of asbestos claims, which have forced companies into bankruptcy like Federal-Mogul and W.R. Grace & Co. The fund would be financed by asbestos defendant companies and insurers.

The effort is part of a broad Republican agenda to revamp the civil justice system. President Bush favors ending what he calls “frivolous asbestos claims,” saying many who file suit are not actually sick from asbestos exposure.

But the White House has not explicitly endorsed Specter’s proposal, and he has struggled to get members of either party on his committee to embrace it.

Many conservative Republicans, reflecting business concerns, fear Specter’s proposal does not provide a final cap on asbestos liability, allowing for example an immediate return to the courts if the fund runs out of money.

Democrats point to organized labor worries that a $140 billion fund may not be big enough, especially early in its life when the volume of claims would likely be greatest.

Specter said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had reserved a “window of floor debate” around Easter (March 27) for the bill. The Judiciary Committee is expected to discuss the proposal at a meeting this Thursday.

Specter said the proposals in the draft bill were not “in concrete” and could be changed, but senators needed to act fast if they were serious about making the proposal law.

“The Senate has reached a critical stage where decisions in the next few weeks will result in either compromise or removal of this issue from the Judiciary Committee agenda,” he warned.

Specter said he knew the panel would not have time to return to the issue later in the year, “with our crowded calendar and prospective Supreme Court nomination hearings.”

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