Jay Inslee: “there is a fatal defect in this bill, and that fatal defect is that it would essentially refuse to give American…”

“there is a fatal defect in this bill, and that fatal defect is that it would essentially refuse to give American citizens relief if they were injured by a foreign corporation's clear and palpable negligence. The defect in this bill is that, if you live in Seattle, you are hurt in Portland by a failure of a Tokyo corporation, this bill says you cannot bring a claim anywhere in the United States against a Japanese corporation that injured you unless that corporation happens to have a retail outlet in the State where you live or where the accident happened. And this is a very serious matter. If one lives in Seattle, if they are injured in Portland, and the product that injures them is made in Germany or Japan or England, they are out of luck. They are now shielding out-of-U.S. corporations. I understand the Republican Party's infatuation with outsourcing, but I do not understand why they would expose Americans and say they cannot bring a claim against somebody that makes a foreign car or foreign construction equipment that injures them. If my colleagues think I am just sort of blowing smoke here, I want to read from the Congressional Research Service memo on this subject. It says: ``However, if a defendant's principal place of business was not in the United States, then this option,'' meaning suing here, ``could not be exercised in the United States court.…”