Fiscal Note
No appropriation required.
Title
Opposing S. 852, the Fairness in Asbestos Resolution Act of 2005 and requesting that United States Senator Herb Kohl vote against the bill.
Body
WHEREAS, S. 852, the Fairness in Asbestos Resolution Act of 2005 is unfair to Wisconsin workers, communities and people currently suffering from asbestos related illnesses and is a giveaway to the corporations that knowingly poisoned U.S. residents for years, and;
WHEREAS, if this bill becomes law, the courthouse doors will be closed to all current and future victims who were exposed to asbestos and their only remedy will be a new federal trust fund that is inadequately funded, provides less compensation to workers than they currently get in the courts and will leave many workers and community members with no access to compensation, even though they have asbestos-related illnesses, and;
WHEREAS, asbestos is a mineral compound used in an estimated 3,000 different products from brake linings to insulation and is still present in 12 to 35 million American homes and workers, backyard mechanics and people involved in home improvement can be exposed to asbestos and never know it, and;
WHEREAS, it can break into fine fibers invisible to the eye that can cause devastating illness and death to anyone who inhales them into their lungs and asbestos companies and their insurers have known these facts for at least 30 years, and perhaps as long as 70 years and yet they continued then and now to expose their workers to the deadly fibers without warning them of the dangers, and;
WHEREAS, contrary to public perception asbestos has not been banned and is still being used today, exposing hundreds of thousands of workers throughout the nation and asbestos is a public health catastrophe that has killed 300,000 Americans so far and will eventually kill an additional half a million or more, and
WHERAS, millions more people exposed to asbestos suffer from asbestosis and pleural diseases and hundreds of thousands more workers suffer from a debilitating scarring of the lungs, and;
WHEREAS, in Madison, the face of our city is changing rapidly, every day workers, and perhaps communities, are exposed to asbestos as we renovate our buildings, remodel our homes, and rebuild our city and Wisconsin already ranks 16th among the states in asbestos related deaths, and;
WHEREAS, workers and families who are awaiting payment of their negotiated settlements, will lose that compensation immediately and only qualify for greatly reduced compensation under the new trust fund, and those awaiting trials will have to start all over again, even though it could take up to two years for the new program to be up and running, and;
WHEREAS, compensation levels are inadequate and even the sickest asbestos victims will receive less compensation than they receive today, and;
WHEREAS, experts including the Congressional Budget Office have raised concerns about the funding level in the bill and whether its sufficient to pay all legitimate claims and this will lead to delayed compensation for all asbestos victims as well as an increased likelihood that there will be no money at all to compensate victims in the future, and;
WHEREAS, S. 852 does not provide automatic reversion to the courts if the trust fund runs out of money and experts have estimated the peak for illness will not occur until 2018 at which point this under funded trust fund may run dry, and;
WHEREAS, Wisconsin is an asbestos hotspot, meaning asbestos laden ore was shipped to five locations in our state from the criminally indicted W.R. Grace mine in Libby MT, likely exposing thousands of Wisconsinites to the poison and this bill offers no guaranteed access to compensation for most people, and;
WHEREAS, it greatly reduces the liability of asbestos manufacturers and their insurers and the ten largest asbestos companies would save 20.3 billion and the bill will also save billions for large corporations like W.R. Grace, whose overall liability will be reduced from an estimated $3.1 billion under the current court system to about $418 million under this bailout bill,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Common Council opposes S. 852, the Fairness in Asbestos Resolution Act of 2005 because, as currently drafted, it does not conform to fundamental principles of fairness and justice in compensating innocent victims of asbestos exposure. The Common Council also commends Senator Russ Feingold for his opposition of S.852 and urges Senator Kohl to change his vote and oppose this bill, supporting the people of Madison over corporate profit.