On the recordJanuary 8, 2016
The FACT Act requires increased transparency to combat fraud committed against the asbestos trusts. This amendment strikes the requirement that the asbestos trusts publish the very data that would be necessary to detect the fraud between the trusts and State court tort proceedings. In its place, the amendment calls for quarterly reports under the bill to publish only aggregate lists of demands received and aggregate lists of payments made by the trusts. Simple aggregation of information is not enough to allow defendants and State court parties and sister asbestos trusts to make meaningful inquiry into whether or not they are being defrauded. The amendment also removes the requirement that the asbestos trusts respond to information requests from parties subject to asbestos- related suits and imposes the cost of such requests on the inquiring parties. The cost-shifting element of this provision is significant. In fact, a GAO report found that one asbestos trust had to pay over $1 million to respond to a discovery request. Rather than have asbestos trust money used to comply with discovery requests, they should be preserved for the payment to the victims of asbestos-related illnesses. This amendment not only guts the transparency requirements and elements of the bill, it also removes meaningful cost-saving measures. In fact, the bill is carefully crafted to protect folks' privacy.…
