Press Release
Groups Call Specter Bill Unfair
CPMV Agrees With AFL-CIO Objections
WASHINGTON, D.C. — At a press conference today, several of the nations' leading asbestos victims' groups and environmental groups weighed in with insurers and other businesses to oppose the asbestos trust fund bill that is currently being considered by the U.S. Senate.
The Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims (CPMV), Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), The White Lung Association (WLA), AFL-CIO, 9/11 Environmental Action, New York Committee Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) and the Environmental Information Association (EIA) laid out their points of contention today on Capitol Hill following a meeting with Senate Judiciary Chairman, Senator Arlen Specter. The groups also signed a strongly-worded letter to Sen. Specter as the Senate prepares for this week's legislative hearings.
The bill, officially introduced last Tuesday, will take asbestos victims' claims out of the court system and force them into a federal trust fund. This latest version of the bill, slated for Senate mark up on April 28, came as a result of months of negotiations among stakeholders, but still falls far short of reaching a consensus.
The groups in attendance agree with Specter and other members that federal legislation is necessary to deal with the high volume of litigation stemming from asbestos poisoning, but add that the "trust fund" approach advocated by Specter falls short in many areas — particularly in its ability to fairly compensate the sickest victims of asbestos poisoning.
The groups pointed out that the bill is unfair because: it takes away victims' constitutional right to legal redress; it fails to provide adequate funding to guarantee that all victims are fairly and fully compensated; it could exclude mesothelioma victims with any history of smoking; and it is a bailout for corporations, like W.R. Grace, who knowingly poisoned its employees.
In the letter to Specter, leaders of the groups state that "this legislation will result in tens of thousands of persons being denied coverage....it will also leave them without any legal recourse for their injuries....These actions raise serious constitutional questions about whether the Congress has the right to take away citizens' right to a jury trial by leaving them without any form of legal recourse or guaranteed compensation."
CPMV, ADAO, WLA, 9/11 Environmental Action, NYCOSH, and EIA plan to do all that they can to inform the public of the bill's unfairness and to stop its passage.
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Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims
The Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims (CPMV) is an organization founded by asbestos victims and their families and friends. CPMV works to raise awareness on national asbestos issues and ensure that victims' rights are properly represented and protected on both a local and national level. For more information visit www.asbestostruth.org.
The White Lung Association
The White Lung Association (WLA) is an organization made up of people with asbestos-related diseases, where they can find out information about these diseases and political developments.
New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health
NYCOSH, the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, is a non-profit coalition of 200 local unions and more than 400 individual workers, physicians, lawyers and other health and safety activists — all dedicated to the right of every worker to a safe and healthful job. Part of a nation-wide network of 25 union-based safety and health organizations, NYCOSH fights job hazards where the fight is needed most: on the shop floor. For more information visit www.nycosh.org.
9/11 Environmental Action
9/11 ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION is a community-based organization of residents, parents and occupational safety, public, and environmental health advocates, formed in April 2002 to end the federal Environmental Protection Agency cover-up, fight for a comprehensive clean-up, and demand medical monitoring and health care for everyone harmed by WTC contamination. For more information visit www.911ea.org.
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April 25, 2005
The Honorable Arlen Specter
Chairman
U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairman Specter:
As leaders of several major asbestos victims' and advocacy groups — 9/11 Environmental Action, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims, White Lung Asbestos Information Center and White Lung Association plus Fatal Deception author Michael Bowker — we are compelled to inform you and all Members of Congress of our strong and unequivocal opposition to your legislation (S. 852). This legislation is not good for victims and clearly has been written for the benefit of the business community.
The bill imposes upon asbestos victims the most severe of tort reform measures — the elimination of their constitutional right to a jury trial. It does so without providing guaranteed, adequate or fair compensation. The CBO similarly concluded that the proposed total funding is far less than what is needed to adequately compensate current and future asbestos victims. To compound the problem, the legislation only contemplates up-front funding of approximately $42 billion in the first five years. By the time the administrative apparatus of the fund is established, there will likely be between 400,000 and 600,000 pending claims. These claims would require at least $30 billion in awards by 2006, money the fund will not yet have accrued.
Additionally, the bill provides no clarity on who pays what regarding the monies that businesses are required to pay. The bill merely sets forth a number and then leaves the entire payment provisions in the dark. We believe that if the Congress is going to take the drastic action of eliminating individuals' legal rights, it has an obligation to ensure that individuals receive fair and timely compensation, an assurance of adequate funding and clarity of that funding. Your legislation fails to meet all of these standards. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who is a co-sponsor of the asbestos bill, said at the committee meeting last week that she wants to see a list of companies that would pay into the trust fund before the committee approves it: "It's difficult to put together a bill that's $140 billion and not know where the money is coming from," she said. "We need to know before a bill passes through committee." In response to the transparency issue, you stated that “candidly, companies are reluctant to say how much they are paying.” We believe that this response is insufficient, but it is consistent with the purpose of this legislation: to overwhelmingly favor the wrongdoers over the wronged.
Your legislation also includes very restrictive medical criteria standards that, according to physicians' groups, are faulty and without a sound scientific and medical basis. These extreme standards will be difficult for many victims to meet. Moreover, not only will the standards be problematic based on the draconian substantive requirements, the Administrator and other program officials will have every incentive to apply the criteria in the most stringent manner in order to address the bill's funding shortfalls: the more claims that are denied, the less monies that will have to be paid out. The bill even encourages the Administrator to recommend taking such action prior to a sunset as a means of salvaging the solvency of the program.
Even more troubling is that the legislation on its face excludes specific classes of victims. These include: (1) individuals with Level VII lung cancer who have a history of smoking as well as other groups that have any connection to smoking, notwithstanding warnings by medical experts that this is not a valid basis for determining and dismissing an asbestos-related disease; (2) individuals who have been victims of industrial and environmental exposures, similar to victims of Libby, Montana, but without similar protections; and (3) and those exposed by the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster. The fact is that there are communities of people all across the nation that have been victimized by mass asbestos exposure who will be denied coverage because of the restrictive criteria and the absence of any provisions to address their particular situation.
The Libby, Montana exception highlights the stringent nature of the medical criteria. Without the exception, Libby, Montana residents would have been excluded from the bill. This will be the fate of the other exposed communities and neighborhoods across the nation who have not been extended the exception.
As a result of this legislation, tens of thousands of persons will be denied coverage and compensation — on a regular basis. However, it will also leave them without any legal recourse for their injuries as they will be prevented from seeking redress under any other legal theory because the asbestos nature of their injuries.
The asbestos disease crisis represents the greatest mass tort in American history. Yet, your legislation imposes the harsher burdens on the victims. If it were to become law, it would represent one of the most contradictory and tragic public policies ever enacted by Congress.
We wholeheartedly believe that a federal solution to asbestos claims is warranted and we continue to stand ready to work with you and all Committee Members on this important issue. However, we are strongly opposed to your legislation and will do all that we can to advocate against it.
Sincerely,
Kimberly Flynn, Co-coordinator
Rachel Lidov, Co-coordinator
9/11 Environmental Action
Linda Reinstein, Executive Director
Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization
Susan Vento, Chairperson
Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims
Barbara Zeluck, Secretary and Editor
White Lung Asbestos Information Center
James Fite, National Secretary
White Lung Association
Michael Bowker,
author of Fatal Deception and activist
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The Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims (CPMV) is an organization founded by asbestos victims and their families and friends. CPMV works to raise awareness on national asbestos issues and ensure that victims' rights are properly represented and protected on both a local and national level. For more information, www.asbestostruth.org.
