US News reports that on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 the House approved
House Resolution 982, the Furthering
Asbestos Claim Transparency Act (FACT Act) in a vote 221-199. The FACT Act is part of a national
campaign being led by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and National
Chamber of Commerce to limit compensation paid to asbestos victims and delay
justice.
There is good news though. According to the article, the
Democratic-controlled Senate has no plans to take up the bill, and the White
House on Tuesday said President Barack Obama would veto it. “The bill’s
mandatory reporting and disclosure requirements would threaten asbestos
victims’ privacy when they seek payment for injuries from an asbestos
bankruptcy trust,” the White House said in a statement of administration policy
opposing the bill.
On
Tuesday, Linda Reinstein, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO)
President/CEO and Co-Founder along with members of the Alliance for Justice, the
American Association for Justice and the Asbestos Cancer Victims’ Rights Campaign,
attended a House Staff briefing to oppose the bill and urge representatives to
vote against the FACT Act.
This legislation is an invasion of privacy which seeks to
require patients and their families to post personal financial information,
information about their dependents and the last four digits of their Social
Security numbers on a public website. The bill will not only limit justice
received by victims, but will ultimately open them and their families up to
potential identity theft.
It would also have claimants seek compensation through the
asbestos trust system before going through their state court to seek damages
against companies, some states already have this law in practice.
Supporters
of the legislation claim that rampant fraud is occurring in the system, fraud
for which they have no definitive proof. They say this fraud occurs when people
file claims against one trust blaming it for their asbestos disease, then make
the same claims to other trusts as well as to companies in court.
Mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases are not
typically caused by a single exposure to asbestos. In almost all cases, the
disease is caused by the cumulative effect of many, sometimes countless,
exposures throughout a person’s lifetime. Accordingly, asbestos disease is
almost always the result of exposures to a wide variety of asbestos products
from a multitude of different manufacturers and suppliers. It has long since
been established that these companies knew about the dangers of asbestos and
kept it mum.
The asbestos company owners, such as the Koch brothers, who
are behind the so-called FACT legislation, have distorted the facts in an
effort to convince the public that persons claiming that their asbestos disease
was caused by more than one manufacturer’s product are committing a fraud. In
reality, it is the supporters of this legislation who are committing a fraud—a
fraud which, not surprisingly, inures to the financial interests of asbestos
companies at the expense of the financial and privacy interests of asbestos
illness sufferers.
Here's what
you can do to help right now:
Go to www.cancervictimsrights.org to connect with a community of people fighting this
legislation and standing up for cancer victims.
Related
links:
- Huffington Post Debunks Claims of Fraud by Supporters of the “Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency Act”
- Susan Vento, Wife of Deceased Congressman and Mesothelioma Victim Bruce Vento, Expresses Her Strong Opposition to the So-Called “FACT Act”
- Wall Street Journal Continues to Side with Asbestos Companies on Allegations of Asbestos Trust Fraud
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