Mike Thompson: “we are proceeding to clear the air on this issue, and that is important. It is a very important issue. One of the things…”

“we are proceeding to clear the air on this issue, and that is important. It is a very important issue. One of the things Senator Grassley pointed out was that this did not go through the regular committee process. It is a very complicated bill, and we are just now seeing the complications of it; one of those being the extent to which employers are liable, employers can be sued. Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to work all that out in committee. So now we are here in this Chamber arguing about the exposure of employers. We are making progress because, when we first started this debate, the supporters of the McCain-Kennedy-Edwards bill basically said: We were not attempting to go after employers. That is not what this is about. Then in the fine print, yes, well, under certain limited circumstances. I think we know now that there is, indeed, extreme exposure as far as employers are concerned and that it constitutes a significant part of the effect of this bill. We are making progress. Now we can talk about the extent to which employers should or should not have exposure and liability.”