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Passage is unlikely for Patriot Act, asbestos bill
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Thursday, January 26, 2006 | No comments posted.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate opens its 2006 legislative session next week with two measures stalled at the starting gate: renewing the anti-terror USA Patriot Act and establishing a fund to compensate asbestos disease sufferers and stop their lawsuits against American businesses.
The Patriot Act is set to expire Feb. 3. Lacking the votes to renew many of the anti-terrorism law's provisions permanently and others for four years, Republican leaders are looking at a simple extension into March.
The other measure is a bill to compensate asbestos disease sufferers and halt suits the Bush administration says have cost businesses $80 billion. The measure is in such bad shape that one senator predicted it will only pass with help from a higher power.
“Perhaps it will take a miracle, but miracles do happen,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Wednesday.
Both bills are products of the Senate Judiciary Committee and are being managed by its chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
Specter also is directing the Senate's handling of Samuel Alito's Supreme Court nomination. On the same day the Senate is scheduled to start debate on the asbestos bill - Feb. 6 - Specter also will preside over the first hearing on whether President Bush exceeded his authority when he ordered wiretaps without warrants of international calls or international e-mails made from inside the United States.
The agenda leaves Specter little time for drawn-out stalemates. On Wednesday, he urged colleagues to either pass a negotiated compromise with the House for renewing the Patriot Act or extend the current law well beyond March. Before leaving for its holiday break in December, Congress passed a five-week extension of the law.
“If you have another short-term extension, it's just going to beget another short-term extension,” Specter said. “So I want to fish or cut bait before Feb. 3.”
The Patriot Act, passed in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, makes it easier for federal agents to gather and share information in terrorism investigations, install wiretaps, or conduct secret searches of households or businesses.
At issue is whether the law can be changed to provide enough new privacy safeguards to win support from Senate Democrats and four libertarian-leaning Republicans blocking a Senate vote on it.
The looming deadline has done little to resolve the dispute, Specter said.
Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., who opposes the House-Senate conference report, said he has been talking with the White House about making changes to the compromise to improve its prospects.
Specter said chances of such a resolution “somewhere between bleak and nonexistent.”
The asbestos bill has been a priority of Bush's business allies since he took office in 2001, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has promised that it would be the first new legislation that the Senate takes up this year.
The bill would establish a $140 billion trust fund with contributions from corporate defendants and their insurers to compensate victims of asbestos exposure. In exchange, courts would be forbidden from hearing new lawsuits from asbestos victims, sparing defendants crippling jury awards.
A well-funded coalition of companies and unions has launched a muscular campaign against the measure, saying among other things that the fund isn't big enough. Democrats and several Republican senators also worry that taxpayers might be left holding the bill.
“Candidly and openly, we face very, very powerful interests who are opposed to any action” on the asbestos bill, Specter said.
Asbestos is fibrous mineral commonly used until the mid-1970s in insulation and fireproofing material. It has tiny fibers that can cause cancer and other ailments when inhaled, but the diseases often take decades to develop.
Between 1940 and 1980 more than 27.5 million workers were exposed to asbestos on the job, and nearly 19 million of them had high levels of exposure over long periods.
The Rand Institute for Civil Justice said in a 2003 study that more than 60 companies have sought bankruptcy protection because of more than 600,000 asbestos claims now in courts. That number is expected to grow in the future.
The Patriot Act is set to expire Feb. 3. Lacking the votes to renew many of the anti-terrorism law's provisions permanently and others for four years, Republican leaders are looking at a simple extension into March.
The other measure is a bill to compensate asbestos disease sufferers and halt suits the Bush administration says have cost businesses $80 billion. The measure is in such bad shape that one senator predicted it will only pass with help from a higher power.
“Perhaps it will take a miracle, but miracles do happen,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Wednesday.
Both bills are products of the Senate Judiciary Committee and are being managed by its chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
Specter also is directing the Senate's handling of Samuel Alito's Supreme Court nomination. On the same day the Senate is scheduled to start debate on the asbestos bill - Feb. 6 - Specter also will preside over the first hearing on whether President Bush exceeded his authority when he ordered wiretaps without warrants of international calls or international e-mails made from inside the United States.
The agenda leaves Specter little time for drawn-out stalemates. On Wednesday, he urged colleagues to either pass a negotiated compromise with the House for renewing the Patriot Act or extend the current law well beyond March. Before leaving for its holiday break in December, Congress passed a five-week extension of the law.
“If you have another short-term extension, it's just going to beget another short-term extension,” Specter said. “So I want to fish or cut bait before Feb. 3.”
The Patriot Act, passed in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, makes it easier for federal agents to gather and share information in terrorism investigations, install wiretaps, or conduct secret searches of households or businesses.
At issue is whether the law can be changed to provide enough new privacy safeguards to win support from Senate Democrats and four libertarian-leaning Republicans blocking a Senate vote on it.
The looming deadline has done little to resolve the dispute, Specter said.
Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., who opposes the House-Senate conference report, said he has been talking with the White House about making changes to the compromise to improve its prospects.
Specter said chances of such a resolution “somewhere between bleak and nonexistent.”
The asbestos bill has been a priority of Bush's business allies since he took office in 2001, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has promised that it would be the first new legislation that the Senate takes up this year.
The bill would establish a $140 billion trust fund with contributions from corporate defendants and their insurers to compensate victims of asbestos exposure. In exchange, courts would be forbidden from hearing new lawsuits from asbestos victims, sparing defendants crippling jury awards.
A well-funded coalition of companies and unions has launched a muscular campaign against the measure, saying among other things that the fund isn't big enough. Democrats and several Republican senators also worry that taxpayers might be left holding the bill.
“Candidly and openly, we face very, very powerful interests who are opposed to any action” on the asbestos bill, Specter said.
Asbestos is fibrous mineral commonly used until the mid-1970s in insulation and fireproofing material. It has tiny fibers that can cause cancer and other ailments when inhaled, but the diseases often take decades to develop.
Between 1940 and 1980 more than 27.5 million workers were exposed to asbestos on the job, and nearly 19 million of them had high levels of exposure over long periods.
The Rand Institute for Civil Justice said in a 2003 study that more than 60 companies have sought bankruptcy protection because of more than 600,000 asbestos claims now in courts. That number is expected to grow in the future.
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