HoustonChronicle.com - Unwanted intrusion: Asbestos bill in U.S. Senate would undercut recent Texas law

HoustonChronicle.com - Unwanted intrusion: Asbestos bill in U.S. Senate would undercut recent Texas law: "Asbestos bill in U.S. Senate would undercut recent Texas legislation with an inferior law opposed by consumers and corporations.

All that hard work could go down the drain if the U.S. Senate passes an asbestos bill it is considering. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a physician, is strongly pushing S.852, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act. The bill would eliminate defendants' and plaintiffs' access to state and federal courts. Instead, it would use borrowed federal funds and mandatory assessments on all corporate defendants in asbestos civil litigation and their insurers to establish a $140 billion fund. Only ill workers who could prove five years of occupational exposure to asbestos, and their dependents, would be eligible for compensation.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry wrote President George W. Bush last month to warn that the asbestos trust fund concept is "deeply flawed" and the Senate bill's medical criteria "far too weak." Texas Sen. John Cornyn says he cannot support the bill as written."