BULLETIN: Asbestos Reform Fails Major Hurdle
By Steven Brostoff, Washington Editor
NU Online News Service, April 22, 1:02 p.m. EDT, Washington?Controversial asbestos litigation reform legislation lost a key procedural vote today but Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., vowed to continue efforts to reach a consensus.[@@]
The legislation, S. 2290, failed to muster the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture, which is necessary to prevent a filibuster. The final vote was 50 in favor of cloture and 47 against.
Immediately after the vote, Sen. Frist said on the floor of the Senate that the issue is too important to the American people for it to be abandoned and it will not be dropped.
He said he plans to continue discussions over the next several days or weeks to try a reach an agreement. Despite the cloture vote, Sen. Frist said, he believes it is still possible to move the discussion forward.
"I'm confident we can make progress and move to a final agreement," he said.
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.