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Asbestos Stocks Rise As Deal Approaches

WASHINGTON - April 12, 2005 - Business - AP - Asbestos-related stocks rose sharply Tuesday as key Senate Democrats appeared ready to accept major concessions in an asbestos injury trust-fund bill circulated Tuesday.

"I think we are very close to a deal," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., told reporters Tuesday afternoon. "I still do not have the final results until senators take a look at it," Specter said, "But ... I am optimistic."

Shares of Armstrong Holdings Inc. shot up 93 cents, or 49 percent, to $2.83; W.R. Grace & Co. rose $1.01, or 13 percent, to $9.05; USG Corp. was up $3.94, or 11 percent, at $39.21; and McDermott International Inc. rose $1.85, or 9.8 percent, to $20.65.

The Senate legislation would end asbestos liability lawsuits against companies such as these in exchange for a $140 billion industry-funded trust fund out of which workers with asbestos-related injuries would be compensated.

Key Democrats have agreed to bar from the fund workers who had been exposed to asbestos and developed lung cancer but who had no other signs of asbestos-related injuries. Benefits for these workers are categorized in the original version of the bill as "Level VII" awards.

Insurers and defendant corporations had objected to providing Level VII awards to these workers, many of whom were smokers or ex-smokers, because they may not have contracted their disease strictly from asbestos.

Specter said as a general rule, the legislation excludes from awards those who cannot demonstrate that "their cancer was caused by asbestos."

Money saved by excluding those workers — industry groups estimate as much as $30 billion — will be plowed back into the trust fund to provide higher awards to those with greater injuries from asbestos, Specter said.

For example, the original version of the bill would have provided an award of $1.075 million for those suffering from mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer. Specter noted that mesothelioma is a deadly disease and juries have been awarding victims more than had previously been proposed by the bill.

"What we are trying to do is take care of people who are sick," Specter said.

Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, praised the decision to drop Level VII awards from the bill. He and other conservative Republicans had sought the changes.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., plans a meeting with fellow Judiciary Committee Democrats on Tuesday to discuss the proposal.

Asbestos is linked to a number of lung diseases, including cancer and asbestosis. Legal claims against employers have driven many companies into bankruptcy, and the legislative effort to create a trust fund has been closely watched by insurers, labor groups and defendant corporations.

Specter has struggled for months to secure an agreement on the bill that would satisfy conservative Republicans on his committee while still winning enough Democrats to avoid a filibuster when the bill hits the Senate floor. A filibuster takes 60 of 100 votes and there are only 55 Republican senators.

"If we get out of the Judiciary Committee then I think there are enough people interested (in the bill) on both sides of the aisle to give it a good prospect for passage" by the full Senate, Cornyn said Tuesday morning.

But, he warned, "there are still a lot of things up in the air."

He said Republicans on the committee plan to meet Tuesday afternoon "to look at some of the mechanics to make sure this thing will work the way it is intended to work."

Specter also plans a meeting later in the day with Senate GOP leaders.