William H. Frist: “Let me summarize the last 3 weeks as being gratifyingly productive. I say that because last Thursday, by a vote of 72 to…”

“Let me summarize the last 3 weeks as being gratifyingly productive. I say that because last Thursday, by a vote of 72 to 26, the Senate passed the Class Action Fairness Act. The process was bipartisan throughout. It was a great legislative victory for the Senate and, subsequently, for the House of Representatives, which passed the bill today. Soon the President will sign this very important issue that addresses lawsuit abuses. Senator Grassley, who was the lead sponsor of the bill, had been working on class action reform for over a decade. Last week, we finally delivered. I commend my colleagues for their fairness and their cooperation. I applaud also Senator Arlen Specter, who has not been with us the last couple of days, but I talked to him a few minutes ago, and he is doing very well. I applaud him for his leadership because it was through his committee, the Judiciary Committee, that class action was first addressed and brought to the floor, again, with a bipartisan vote, and ultimately passed. Building on the momentum of the class action bill, we passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act today, not too long ago, with a vote of 98 to 0.”