February 25th, 2005

A recent meeting arranged for government officials to air any concerns they had about the asbestos trust fund bill has resulted in requests for further changes to the bill. These changed were requested by republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. One Senator stated that he hoped some requested modifications would be implemented by Senator Alan Specter, and that these changes would take asbestos compensation claims out of court. Senator John Cornyn stated: "It was very good and constructive. Everyone was very frank and specific about what their concerns were. But everyone remains committed to getting a bill out."

It seems that at present the asbestos compensation bill, which is being headed by republic Senator Alan Specter, is receiving support from the democrats, but is being viewed critically by republicans. The main concerns, according to Senator Cornyn, is that there needs to be a facility to ensure that any compensation paid out takes into consideration any form of compensation already paid out to the claimant under any other type of scheme.

Cornyn has been asked by Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, to work on these concerns. He has stated that there is a good chance that the bill might not get out of the judiciary committee because of the strong republican concerns over many areas of the proposed legislation. Another area of concern is the provision of up to $200,000 to lung cancer afflicted smokers with no evidence of asbestos exposure.

Senator Specter has already stated that he is open to suggestions and will consider revisions. This is something that is welcomed by fellow republicans but is likely to have quite the opposite effect where democrats are concerned.