AZ Republicans copy ALEC bill limiting asbestos liability

by David Safier

Hat tip to Lisa Hoffman for uncovering yet another bill the Arizona Republicans copied from ALEC model legislation.

The bill is HB2386, "asbestos related liability; successor corporations," sponsored by 10 Republicans, including S. AZ's Terri Proud, David Gowan, David Stevens and Frank Antenori. It's almost word for word from ALEC's 2004 Model Bill, Successor Asbestos-Related Liability Fairness Act.

I'm not an expert on asbestos litigation, by a long shot. Here are a few bits of information I've gleaned from a google search. Others who know more, please chime in.

An article in 2000 talks about Dick Cheney and Halliburton pushing for a bill to "limit the ability of workers to sue companies for asbestos exposure." If I remember correctly, Cheney pushed Halliburton to purchase a company with asbestos lawsuits against it, then wanted to get out of the lawsuits.

The ALEC model bill has been proposed in a number of states, including Florida, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Virginia. According to the next link, the bill "passed in 11 states and [has] been introduced in an additional 5."

A version of the bill passed in Virginia in 2010.

This legislation was designed to limit the liability of Crown Cork & Seal in relation asbestos litigation. Virginia House Speaker Bill Howell requested Delegate Kilgore carry the legislation. Howell, who has close ties to both ALEC and Crown Cork & Seal, used his considerable power to rearrange committee assignments and heavily lobbied his colleagues after versions of the bill failed two years in a row. ALEC, which authored the legislation, notes it has passed in 11 states and been introduced in an additional 5, including Virginia.

A Washington Post article details the intense politicking and maneuvering necessary to pass the Virginia bill. Here's a passage about the ALEC connection:

Howell, 66, of Stafford, declined to be interviewed for this article. But his chief of staff, G. Paul Nardo, said the speaker pursued the proposal because of his long-standing interest in tort reform and because of his involvement with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group that has been pushing the Crown Cork bill in state legislatures across the nation since 2006. Nardo provided copies of ALEC's model asbestos legislation as well as the group's backup materials supporting the bill. Howell served as the group's national chairman last year.

I don't know who specifically the AZ bill is designed to protect, but it isn't people who were affected by asbestos exposure.