Mike Thompson: “I, too, share the concern of the Senator from Alabama concerning the application of the commerce clause to some of the…”

“I, too, share the concern of the Senator from Alabama concerning the application of the commerce clause to some of the amendments that we have already adopted. I suppose the courts will have to determine whether or not there is sufficient interstate commerce with regard to some of these matters in the future. In response to some of the comments made by the Senator from Washington, I have already pointed out that according to the American Bar Foundation, which is an independent body, separate from the American Bar Association, that if you include all the product liability cases filed in Federal court, plus those removed to Federal court--in other words, the subject of this amendment--you have approximately 45 percent of the product liability cases that were filed last year. So this is not a situation where only a handful of cases would be brought in Federal court. Second, the amendment which I propose is not, as it has been characterized, a killer amendment designed to oppose any kind of reform.”