Trent Lott: “another issue I was very sorry we couldn't work out was the terrorism reinsurance. We should have moved that today. We…”

“another issue I was very sorry we couldn't work out was the terrorism reinsurance. We should have moved that today. We should have moved it a month ago. What happened was Senator Gramm, Senator Dodd, and Senator Sarbanes came to agreement on a bill in the committee of jurisdiction, the Banking and Financial Services Committee. It had some limits on liability. But then it was basically taken away from those Senators, and they were told we were not going to do it that way. The bill that Senator Daschle asked consent to move this afternoon did not have any limits on attorney's fees or any prohibitions on punitive damages. And Senator McConnell then said: We should move the bill, but we should have at least a vote on whether or not there should be any limits on liabilities. That is all we were asking, not that it just be included, which it should have been because that was what was in the committee, but that we have an opportunity to vote on that. And, by the way, as an old whip, I had counted the votes, and the votes were here in the Senate to pass that bill with no punitive damages allowed and some limits on liability. Otherwise, we would have lawsuits being settled and attorney fees and punitive damages coming out of the Federal Treasury if we had a terrorist attack that invoked this terrorism reinsurance.”