Asbestos Settlement Fund Closer To Passage In Early 05 - SacBee

WASHINGTON - "Republican election triumphs have buoyed hopes in hundreds of businesses for passage of a federal law settling the nation's asbestos injury suits over the next 27 years. Talks are expected to resume within weeks on the measure, which as currently conceived would create a $140 billion, industry-financed, national trust fund to compensate as many as 2 million sick workers. A bill could reach the Senate floor as soon as early next year.

But representatives of both industry and asbestos victims say complex issues must be addressed before the legislation can go forward, even with Republicans now just five votes short of a 60-vote, filibuster-proof Senate majority.
President Bush's re-election and the GOP's pickup of three Senate seats on Nov. 2 make it "easier, but not easy" to achieve an overall accord, said Jan Amundson, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Association of Manufacturers. But she acknowledged that NAM's Asbestos Alliance of about 60 companies, which seek to put a cap on their asbestos liabilities, has never been closer to success.

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Margaret Seminario, the health and safety director of the AFL-CIO and a key negotiator for asbestos victims, said the GOP's election gains make it harder for Democrats to hold the line in negotiations. But, she said, that "doesn't change the reality ... that the asbestos disease crisis is massive, and the compensation issues have to be addressed." If the trust fund is inadequately bankrolled and collapses, she said, what many congressional Republicans see as a "litigation crisis" could become "a compensation crisis and a political crisis," with victims on Congress members' doorsteps.

"This is really serious business," she said. "It's going to affect hundreds of thousands of people, and it's going to affect them immediately. ... We're not going to be party to something that is set up to fail." As many as 27 million workers have breathed dust from asbestos, a naturally occurring, fire retardant mineral that was used in 3,000 products before its dangers became fully known in the 1960s and 1970s. The microscopic fibers, which embed in lung tissues, typically take 10 to 40 years to cause disabling or deadly diseases. Because asbestos is still in older buildings and equipment, the human toll is expected to continue to climb for 20 years or more."

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http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/11597804p-12491001c.html

...HE..presided over the purchase of KBR and the asbestos suits they brought with them.