Angie Craig: “I rise today to speak to S. 2290, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2004, or the FAIR Act. Last July, I…”

“I rise today to speak to S. 2290, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2004, or the FAIR Act. Last July, I voted to pass S. 1125, the original asbestos litigation reform bill, out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in an effort to fix the Nation's broken asbestos litigation system. And indeed it is broken. There have been too many losers under the current tort system. Claimants who are not sick receive disproportionate jury awards, severely sick claimants have been made to wait too long for compensation, companies are going bankrupt, jobs are being lost, and attorneys' fees are cutting away at nearly half of all money spent on asbestos-related litigation. More than 60 defendant corporations have declared bankruptcy due to asbestos-related litigation, leading to the direct loss of as many as 60,000 jobs, with each displaced worker losing an average of $25,000 to $50,000 in wages. Indeed, the system is broken. The constituents from my home State of Idaho have written to me asking me to fix the asbestos problem. The United States Supreme Court has called upon Congress to resolve the asbestos litigation crisis.”