Blake Farenthold: “Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, I would like to take a moment to address some claims that my friends and colleagues…”

“Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, I would like to take a moment to address some claims that my friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle have made. The FACT Act is simple. There are two pages of text to the FACT Act. There is no requirement of any action whatsoever by the victims of asbestos. The trusts are the only ones that are required to do something. Let me just read to you exactly what the requirement is. It doesn't include a broad release of personal information. It is very simple: A trust described in paragraph 2 shall, subject to section 107, file with the bankruptcy court not later than 60 days at the end of every quarter a report that shall be made available on the court's public docket with respect to such quarter. It describes each demand the trust has received from a claimant, including the name, exposure history of a claimant and the basis for any payment from the trust made to such claimant, and it does not include any confidential medical record or the claimant's full Social Security number. All we are asking for in this bill is that the trusts let us know who they are paying the money to and what they are paying it for so we make sure people don't double dip so that there is plenty of money there for future claimants.”