Lincoln Chafee: “I would like to thank the Republican Leader for his willingness to address concerns raised by me and our colleagues from…”

“I would like to thank the Republican Leader for his willingness to address concerns raised by me and our colleagues from Maine regarding certain provisions in H.R. 5005, the Homeland Security Act of 2002. In the interests of clarity, I wanted to discuss one aspect of the Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies (SAFETY) Act of 2002, which is included in H.R. 5005. The SAFETY Act provides that the ``government contractor defense'' will be available to certain sellers of anti-terrorism technology. In Boyle v. United Technologies Corp., 487 U.S. 500, 108 S. Ct. 2510 (1988), the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that the government contractor defense offers relief to certain defendants from liability for design defects. It is my understanding that the drafters of the SAFETY Act were aware of the Boyle decision and intended for the government contractor defense to apply solely to design defect claims, rather than offering blanket relief to any and all causes of action.”