Blake Farenthold: “I am going to have to beg to differ with my colleague from across the aisle. Fraud has been documented in news reports…”

“I am going to have to beg to differ with my colleague from across the aisle. Fraud has been documented in news reports, State court cases, and in testimony before the Judiciary Committee. The Wall Street Journal conducted an investigation that found thousands of dispiritedly filed claims. Court documents in many States, including Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Virginia, attest to widespread fraud. Most recently, a bankruptcy case in North Carolina uncovered a startling number of dispiritedly filed claims. Additionally, the Judiciary Committee heard testimony over the course of four hearings about the FACT Act, during which witnesses repeatedly testified that fraud existed within the asbestos trust bankruptcy situation. Keep in mind that the fraud reported today has been in spite of the lack of disclosure that exists. Consistent with other multimillion-dollar compensation programs, there is fraud occurring in the asbestos trust system, and the FACT Act will go a long way to uncovering that fraud. The FACT Act is designed to provide the minimum amount of transparency necessary to prevent this fraud while protecting the personal information of those victims of asbestos. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.”