Even as the battle over the asbestos industry bailout bill continues full steam ahead in the House, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) and Senator John Ashcroft (R-MO), the author of the bill, in an extraordinary April 4 colloquy on the floor of the Senate, declared the Senate version of the asbestos bill dead for the year.

The House version of the measure, however, was favorably reported out of the Judiciary Committee by narrow 17 to 16 margin (with bipartisan opposition). It is expected that the committee report may be filed the week of April 10, and could come to the floor of the House for a vote thereafter.

In the Senate the night of April 4, Senator Ashcroft, chief sponsor of S. 758, even went so far as to state, on the Record, that "it serves no purpose to represent that S. 758 will pass or be acted upon this year or in the future."

As important and unusual (rarely, if ever, have the Majority Leader and author of a bill taken the extraordinary step of going to the floor to declare a bill they support dead) as this result is, several important notes of caution remain:

* The House could still consider the Judiciary Committee bill this year (although the likelihood of its doing so now is diminished, and the Committee Report has yet to be filed).

* Senators Lott and Ashcroft, even while pronouncing the bill dead in its present form, seem to have left room for action on a bill in the next Congress if the legislation takes a different approach. Ashcroft, for example, again cited "two Supreme Court rulings urging Congress to act on national legislation that would fairly and efficiently compensate victims of asbestos." ATLA is battling vigorously against this industry-backed bailout legislation. It is estimated that proponents of the bill -- including GAF Corp., W.R. Grace, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- spent at least $20 million to date on their lobbying and media campaign.

04/19/00