Lincoln Chafee: “Mr. President, yesterday, I briefly outlined the history of this legislation, which represents now 15 years--15 years…”

“Mr. President, yesterday, I briefly outlined the history of this legislation, which represents now 15 years--15 years; that is a long time--we have been debating this liability reform act. It started in 1981 when Senator Kasten, of Wisconsin, introduced the first bill. Finally, here we are today with a fair and a reasonable bipartisan bill that not only has passed both Houses but did so with strong majorities. The House approved a broader bill, not this one but a broader one, which I presume those on the other side would find more offensive. They passed that 265 to 161, a very substantial majority. In the Senate, the bill that we passed had 61 votes in support of it, 61 out of 100. So with a track record like that, you might think product liability reform would soon become law. But here we are faced with two major obstacles, a cloture vote this afternoon to protect against further filibustering on this issue, and, worse than that, a newly raised threat of a Presidential veto.”