Orrin Hatch: “I wish to close by taking a brief moment to address the budgetary issues. Earlier I spoke to the private versus public…”

“I wish to close by taking a brief moment to address the budgetary issues. Earlier I spoke to the private versus public funding issue. Some of my colleagues believe the taxpayer is on the hook for this bill and I wish to help explain how that is not the case. These are serious concerns, but the FAIR Act does not use Federal funds. It is privately funded--lock, stock, and barrel. Those of you who might be watching at home might be wondering why some people are worrying about the FAIR Act, if it is privately funded, and in the spirit that underlies this bill I will try to explain it. To my knowledge, there is only one way by which the FAIR Act may touch Federal funds and that is through the borrowing mechanism. The administrator created by this act may borrow such funds as are necessary to maintain the liquidity of the fund, but--and this is a big ``but''--the administrator may not borrow amounts which exceed the fund's ability to repay. So the bottom line is that American taxpayers do not pay for this fund. The defendant companies and insurer participants do. At the end of the day, asbestos victims cannot wait any longer. Veterans cannot wait any longer. The overburdened legal system cannot wait any longer. The only group that does not mind waiting consists mainly of 12 law firms filled with asbestos lawyers who do not mind exploiting a broken system because of the billions of dollars that are in it for them. You can hardly blame them. It is a plum tree waiting to be picked.…”