VA House Speaker Personally Pilots Pro-Corp Asbestos Bill, Say Anon. Members Scared Of Retribution

RICHMOND -- The Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill that would help protect a single Fortune 500 company from asbestos lawsuits -- a proposal that House Speaker William J. Howell has been quietly maneuvering to have his chamber support for weeks.

The powerful Republican leader took the unusual step of pleading his case to his caucus behind closed doors, said several delegates, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions. Howell also personally visited individual delegates, including Democrats, and encouraged them to back the measure as a "personal favor," according to several sources. And he reshuffled the committee that was considering the bill -- which it approved last week after it was unexpectedly killed in committee two years in a row.

As he presided over the debate on the House floor this week, an unusually curt Howell told one Democratic delegate who stood to speak on the bill to sit down, and ignored a question from another.

The measure passed an initial vote on Monday, but was defeated unexpectedly Tuesday on a tie vote after some Republicans switched positions and others, who were absent from the earlier vote because of snow, sided against it. Under House rules, the measure was able to be heard again and, on its final try, it passed 49 to 48. Three lawmakers, including Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), switched their votes to support. Albo said several House leaders, including Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem), persuaded him to back the bill in order to win approval of his own priorities, including funding for Northern Virginia schools, later in the legislative session.

EDIT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/09/AR2010020903797.html

Republican Paul Tribble, of Newport News also broke against asbestos lawsuits and didn't get re-elected.

> which it approved last week after it was unexpectedly killed
> in committee two years in a row

Surely the "unexpected" thing was that it was approved on the third attempt
after two previous attempts correctly slapped down such fraudulent behaviour?


> but was defeated unexpectedly Tuesday

Again, the "unexpected" thing was that the final attempt passed the bill
after it had been rejected when the full chamber met - purely due to the
out of chamber "activities" rather than through bilateral debate on the
record.

Nice framing WaPo - way to make an extremely crooked Republican look
as if he was the innocent party!

:wtf:

Good catch. :thumbsup:

"Since ALEC wrote and began pushing asbestos legislation in 2006, 11 states have passed similar bills, said Amy Kjose, director of the group's civil justice task force. It's being considered in five other states, including Virginia."





(My first thought was that this had something to do with DDDDDick Cheney's taking up residence in McLean, VA, but that may actually be just a coincidence. Remember, though, that DDDDDick got his little puppet to specifically mention asbestos lawsuits in the SOTU address -- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1571120 or http://www.democraticunderground.com/searchresults.html?q=sotu+asbestos&sitesearch=democraticunderground.com&sa=Search&domains=democraticunderground.com&client=pub-7805397860504090&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A11&hl