Press Release
C.P.M.V. Commends U.S. Senate On Defeat of S.2290
A Clear Win for Asbestos Exposure Victims
WASHINGTON D.C. — The Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims (CPMV) commended the United States Senate today for its vote to halt consideration of S.2290, the so called Fairness In Asbestos Injury Resolution Act (FAIR Act). By a vote of 50-47, Senators voted against bringing the bill before the full Senate for consideration (60 votes were needed to advance the bill).
Committee Chair Susan Vento said, "This is a clear win for victims of asbestos exposure and I applaud all Senators who stood up for victims' rights." Vento, whose husband former Congressman Bruce Vento died of mesothelioma four years ago continued, "S.2290 was a huge step backward."
Introduced last week by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senator Orrin Hatch after failed negotiations on S.1125 (an earlier version of the FAIR Act), S.2290 had been under fire from stakeholders on both sides of the issue.
Asbestos victims expressed concern that the legislation would subject victims to a process more burdensome than the tort system, but with none of that system's legal protections. In addition, the bill failed to provide adequate funding to ensure that all victims would be fairly compensated. It also omitted critical provisions designed to ensure adequate funding and protect the legal rights of victims in the event that the trust fund failed to operate as intended.
S.2290 would have wiped out all pending cases, regardless of how far they had progressed through the system, including cases where a judgement had been awarded but not paid. The bill did not ban the use of asbestos in the US and included no funding for research on asbestos related diseases. Finally, many Senators had deep reservations that the bill would add as much as $13 billion to the federal deficit.
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