Home - Senate Panel approves Asbestos fund

The Senate Judiciary Committee has moved one step closer to enacting legislation to create a $108-billion trust fund to compensate persons suffering from asbestos-related illness. The plan, championed by panel Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), would also put an end to asbestos-related litigation.

But the bill, approved largely along party lines on July 10 after four day-long drafting sessions, still faces strong opposition from organized labor, the insurance industry and trial lawyers who stand to lose business. With only thin Democratic support, approval by the full Senate is not certain.

Although building trades and other labor unions have supported efforts to create a trust fund, they argue that the Senate package is too small. Victims diagnosed with mesothelioma, the most lethal of the asbestos-related cancers, would be eligible for $1 million from the fund. Claimants with other cancers and at other levels of exposure would get less money. All victims must prove they actually suffer from asbestos-related illness.

The AFL-CIO claims the plan limits liability of asbestos companies while shortchanging victims. The bill would "leave many victims worse off than in the current system," says AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney. Labor groups vow to fight passage unless changes are made.


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