FAIR Act

Risk & Insurance, Oct 1, 2005

The Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act, a U.S. Senate proposal to transfer nearly all outstanding asbestos-related liabilities to a federally administered trust fund, would add $6.5 billion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

The FAIR Act proposes to solve a long-standing liability crisis stemming from exposure to asbestos by transferring all pending asbestos-related claims to a no-fault system administered by a new Office of Asbestos Disease Compensation within the U.S. Department of Labor. The bill has come under fire from labor, trial attorneys and victims' rights groups, as well as from a group of large insurers--including Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., American International Group Inc., Chubb Corp., Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Zurich Financial Services Group and Allstate Corp., among others--that have formed an organization called the "Coalition for Asbestos Reform" to lobby against the bill's passage.