VOTE ON US ASBESTOS BILL SEEN IN EARLY '06- SPECTER
October 28, 2005 06:24

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has pledged to bring a $140 billion asbestos trust fund bill to a vote early next year, one of the legislation's sponsors, Sen. Arlen Specter, said. There was no immediate comment from the office of Frist, a Tennessee Republican. Asbestos, widely used for fireproofing and insulation until the 1970s, has been linked to cancer, and hundreds of thousands of injury claims have bankrupted dozens of U.S. companies. Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, are sponsoring a bill to halt the lawsuits and pay claims from a fund financed by asbestos defendant companies and their insurers.