Federal Asbestos Legislation:
Corporate Welfare and a Bad Deal for Victims

icUendic.S. Representative John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, got it right - and diplomatically understated the case - when he described as "mean-spirited" the incongruously titled "Fairness in Asbestos Compensation Act" in the last Congress.

photo-4The hallmark of that legislation - which enjoyed the generous financial, lobbying, advertising, and public relations support of a number of asbestos companies and their allies - was its outrageous unfairness in denying compensation to the majority of those suffering asbestos disease. It provided no funding for victims and assured compensation to no one.

Not one asbestos …