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USAction Urges Senate to Reject Asbestos Bailout Bill

USAction today urged Senators to vote against the Frist/Hatch asbestos bail out bill, arguing that it continues to put the interests of corporations ahead of victims. At a news conference featuring asbestos victims, the group detailed the top 5 ways victims are hurt by the proposed national trust fund.

“The entire premise of this proposal is totally wrong. From the beginning the focus has been about the needs of the asbestos companies and their insurers who knowingly poisoned hundreds of thousands of innocent workers and consumers. This bail out bill will cause incredible harm to asbestos victims today and well into the future,” said Jeff Blum, executive director of USAction.

2290 bails out asbestos companies and insurers. Halliburton alone would reap savings of $3.8 billion under the bill.

USAction released an analysis of the bill detailing how asbestos victims will be hurt by the bail out bill, stressing the top 5: · Victims and their families lose compensation they already won. This bill confiscates existing compensation agreements already negotiated or won – or those currently in negotiation – by workers and their families and makes them start all over again. · Future Victims won’t be covered. The final version slashed $40 billion from the original bill –it won’t be enough to cover from 1.7 to 2.4 million future asbestos victims. · Victims will face long delays. Meager up front contributions won’t cover at least 450,000 pending settlements and valid claims –victims will have to wait as long as 8 years. · Victims denied compensation and shut out of the courts. Two amendments to allow victims to go to court if the fund doesn’t work have been gutted. (Biden and Feinstein amendments) · S. 2290 bails out asbestos companies and insurers. Halliburton alone would reap savings of $3.8 billion under the bill.

A number of victims also attended the event including: Sue Vento, widow of Congressman Bruce Vento, who died of mesothelioma; Jane Witowski, widow of a navy veteran who died of mesothelioma; and Russell Temperley, a US Air Force veteran and former Vietnam POW who was just diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma. Labor union workers who suffer from asbestos-related disease also attended and spoke at the event. In addition, USAction released a TV advertisement featuring Sue Vento, who called on members of the Senate to reject the proposed asbestos bailout bill.

“My husband died from mesothelioma, caused by working with asbestos. He and tens of thousands of others were poisoned by companies that knew the dangers of asbestos. Now, many of those same companies want Congress to bail them out, turning their backs on the victims and their families,” said Sue Vento.

Jane Witowski, from Vero Beach, Florida spoke of how painful it was to watch her husband’s health rapidly deteriorate. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in August 2003, and he died three months later in November. Her pending trial would be wiped out by the proposed trust fund.

Air Force veteran Russ Temperley has just been diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma and would also be denied his day in court. He lives in Spring Valley, Ohio after having served in the U. S. Air Force for 28 years. A pilot most of his career, he was shot down over North Vietnam and imprisoned in Hanoi from 1967 to 1973.

Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working Group detailed the group’s new study showing that 10,000 people die of asbestos exposure every year – and that deaths are rising.

The USAction analysis of the Frist/Hatch asbestos bill concluded that it fails to meet the goals of a privately funded, publicly administered Fund that would promptly pay asbestos victims fair compensation.

“Only asbestos companies and their insurers could consider this bail out bill to be fair. Halliburton, W.R. Grace and Honeywell would save billions of dollars by stretching out payments over 27 years and reneging on settlements in which they have already promised to help the victims they and their companies knowingly poisoned,” added Blum. “Far from fair, the Frist/Hatch asbestos bail out bill is an outrageous attack on the rights of asbestos victims. It leaves them without the help they need while shutting them out of the legal system.”