Asbestos Legislation The Latest News

Senator Harry Reid has been a strong voice in the U.S. Senate for asbestos cancer victims. He has fought hard to protect the rights of patients to seek justice in the civil courts. He has worked tirelessly to defeat the bail out bill. And he has championed the need for the federal government to fund a mesothelioma research and treatment program, especially for navy veterans. L to R, Ann Worthington, Sen. Harry Reid, Roger Worthington (April, 2006, Corona Del Mar, CA)
 
Protecting Rights, Building Hope. R. Worthington thanking U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (Illinois) for delivering a moving keynote speech at the 2006 MARF conference in Chicago, flanked bymesothelioma survivor and client John McNamara. Worthington founded MARF in 1999, at a time when many of his lawyer colleagues refused to support the non-partisan effort to fund research for a cure.
 
"S. 852 is simply bad public policy. This is not tort reform, it is a new government program that is staggeringly complicated and unworkable. It creates a $140 billion new tax on businesses and insurers. It unfairly benefits a handful of insider companies.. . . And it will most assuredly go broke, leaving U.S. taxpayers on the hook. "The Senate should vote down S. 852 and start over . . ." -- Former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tex).
 
"I was taught that you run your business in an ethical manner," he says. "If I hadn't seen the documentation that these companies knew what they were doing, I wouldn't have pursued this. But I'm angry." -- Terry McCann, Los Angeles Times, February 20, 2006.
 
Protesting SB 852! - Letters From Mesothelioma Patients and Their Families Urge Senators to Defeat SB 852 (4/21/05)
 
Battle Stations! Asbestos Advocacy Alert! No to Corporate Bail Outs. No to SB 852. RGW 4/18/05) Last Updated on July 18, 2005


  • Senator Warner: "support research and treatment", James Zuwalt. (7/17/06)
  • ATLA: Asbestos Bill Remains $20 Billion Corporate Bailout for Asbestos Companies That Knowingly Poisoned People (6/5/06)

    A Mesothelioma Patient's Plea

    Asbestos is the devil's shill!
    When breathed it makes us very ill.
    Where once inside it sets a fire,
    Whose flames grow ever higher and higher.

    Some call it mesothelioma, some a curse!
    Men, women, old and young get worse.
    Because no treatment's known to cure,
    This tumor the exposed endure.

    For each of us, our heart's desire,
    Would be a way to quench this fire!
    Omentum, diaphragm and lung,
    We lost when cancer's trap was sprung.

    Our suffering erodes our will,
    We've tasted chemo's bitter pill,
    With scalpels scarred and photons burned,
    We've paid the price that mesothelioma's earned.

    Please help us fight to save the lives,
    Of sons and husbands, daughters, wives.
    Those dying and all those who follow,
    The thousands more who'll die tomorrow.

    For those afflicted there's no choice,
    But fight to stay the cancer's course.
    Let research give them tools to fight,
    And set this deadly wrong to right.

    * * *

    Please encourage your government to provide funding into mesothelioma research! Write your congressman and senators today to support research rather than the FAIR Act which seeks to pardon the asbestos companies who unleashed this poison on the public.

    Klaus A. Brauch
    Right Pleural Epithelial Mesothelioma

  • S. 852: A Budget Buster. How the Asbestos Bailout Bill Busts the Budget and Burdens the Taxpayers with Billions in Debt (2/12/06)
  • No Money for a Cure over Last 60 years, but over $8.245 Million for Lobbyists in Only 6 Months (2/7/06)
  • FAIR Act Is Anything But Fair (1/30/06)
  • Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, January 11, 2005
    • Billie Speicher, Mesothelioma Patient, Ontario, California
    • Michael Forscey, on behalf of The Association of Trial Lawyers of America
    • Margaret Seminario, Director, Safety and Health Department, American Federation Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
  • Message to Congress: Clean Up the Mess by Banning Asbestos, Funding Medical Research and Compensating the Seriously Injured. Paul Zygielbaum , Jan. 7, 2005
  • Federal-Mogul Corporation and Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Federal-Mogul Oppose National Asbestos Trust Fund Proposal as Fatally Flawed (1/7/05)
  • Proposed Senate Bill 1125 Bails Out Asbestos Corporations, Betrays Asbestos Cancer Patients
    Please read! Counter arguments to Bill: Fund inadequate, Delays unavoidable, Bankruptcy Overrated, Huge Corporate windfall, Victims lose, Rule of Law bludgeoned.
  • Protesting SB 1125! - Letters From Mesothelioma Patients and Their Families Urge Senators to Defeat SB 1125

Media Campaign Against SB 1125/2290

"I got cancer from a habit I started at 14. My habit was going to work." (10/8/03)
(NOTE: you will need to view the ad [.pdf] using Adobe Acrobat)

To learn more about the Stoeckler family referred to in this poster, please Click Here.

The following as posted in the Washington, D.C. Roll Call newspaper.
Asbestos a Problem? Not For Honeywell's CEO. He Took Home $56 Million Dollars Last Year (Roll Call Mag. Ad, 6/27/03)
Why Should Congress Help Halliburton Walk Away From a $4 Billion Dollar Settlement With Asbestos Victims? (Roll Call Mag. Ad, 6/20/03)
Corporate America Aimed to Eliminate Jury from Asbestos Injury Claims (Roll Call Mag. Ad, 6/10/03)
Asbestos Defendants Rejoice: "We will Party in the Streets" if Hatch Asbestos Defendant Windfall Passes (5/29/03)