Dianne Feinstein: “Where we have made some changes--and I would suggest them--is in the second class, raising the Hatch-Frist values from…”

“Where we have made some changes--and I would suggest them--is in the second class, raising the Hatch-Frist values from $20,000 to $25,000; in class III, raising the values for asbestosis/ pleural disease B from $85,000 to $100,000; in class VI, other cancers, going from $150,000 to $200,000; in class VII, giving nonsmokers with 15 years weighted exposure a range of $225,000 to $650,000--that is $50,000 more than in the Hatch-Frist proposal; in class VIII, lung cancer with pleural disease, giving nonsmokers a range of $600,000 to $1.1 million--a $100,000 increase; in class IX, giving nonsmokers a range of $800,000 to $1.1 million a $100,000 increase; and for mesothelioma, the last category, a $1.1 million average award on a sliding scale. These numbers have been run by Goldman Sachs. They total $123.6 billion, as opposed to the $114.4 estimated for the Hatch-Frist proposal. Because I have not been party directly to any of the discussion, regretfully, the only way I can get my views through, it appears, is through the floor of the Senate. I believe this is much more fair to nonsmokers and I believe the methodology of giving the trust administrator the ability that, if nonsmoker cases rise above a certain percent in the next year, at the end of the previous year the administrator be given the power to put all of those cases into the tort system which will not only act as a deterrent, but will also provide the ability to fund this.”