Orrin Hatch: “I would like to be standing here today to debate the merits of why we should be voting for cloture on this bill. But…”

“I would like to be standing here today to debate the merits of why we should be voting for cloture on this bill. But since we all know how this vote will turn out, I just want to congratulate in advance some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for killing yet another civil justice reform measure this Congress. The constituents that they serve--the powerful and well financed plaintiffs bar--owe them a deep debt of gratitude for not only killing class action reform but also derailing the asbestos trust fund bill, the medical malpractice reform bill, and gun liability reform bill, to name a few. Their truly special interest constituent has survived yet another year devoid of tort reform, and as a result, will continue raking in millions of dollars in cash to help finance the Democratic party in the coming months. I am hoping the 62 people who committed to vote for cloture last November will vote for it. We can even lose two of them as long as we have 60 to vote for cloture. If we have 60, then I will feel a lot better than I do in giving these remarks. But unlike the caution chorus that they rolled out to kill the asbestos bill, the tactics used by my Democratic colleagues to defeat class action reform have been disappointing at best, and downright disingenuous, at worst.”