Tim Scott: “I rise in support of H.R. 1023, the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act of 1998. The purpose of the bill is to…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 1023, the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act of 1998. The purpose of the bill is to establish a fund to provide compassionate payments of $100,000 to individuals with hemophilia who contracted HIV, the AIDS virus, from contaminated blood-clotting products. Hemophilia is a blood-clotting disorder genetically passed to sons by their mothers. In the late 1970s and early 1980s approximately 7,200 boys and men were infected with HIV through the use of blood-clotting products. That is nearly half of all people with hemophilia in the United States. Because these blood-clotting products were derived from pools made up of literally thousands of donors, including prisoners, it has been nearly impossible to conclude causation and liability to any one manufacturer for selling contaminated blood products. Although, as the chairman mentioned, many cases have been settled, of the dozen or so cases that eventually went to trial, the manufacturers were only held liable in two cases, one of which was reversed and the other is still on appeal.”