...
Burns criticizes Baucus provision to pay sickened Libby residents - billingsgazette.com
Javascript disabled.
Cannot display HTML ad.
Keyword Search:
Past Issues
(MM/DD/YY):
//
Special Reports
Gazette State Poll
MORE SPECIAL REPORTS
January 18, 2006Last modified January 18, 2006 - 6:40 pm
Burns criticizes Baucus provision to pay sickened Libby residents
Burns criticizes Baucus provision to pay sickened Libby residents
By MARY CLARE JALONICKAssociated Press
WASHINGTON - Montana Sen.
Conrad Burns said Wednesday that he opposes a pending senate bill designed to compensate residents of Libby, Mont., who have been sickened by asbestos.
Burns, a Republican, is opposing a provision authored by the state's other senator, Democrat Max Baucus.
The language, which would pay sickened Libby residents up to $1.1 million each for asbestos-related diseases, is included in larger asbestos legislation passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee last year.
The Senate is expected to take up the bill in coming weeks.
About 200 deaths and many more cases of asbestos-related disease have been blamed on asbestos contamination associated with Libby's vermiculite mine, which was operated by W.R.
Grace & Co.
and closed in 1990.
Javascript disabled.
Cannot display HTML ad.
Burns said he opposes the legislation because it does not use a certain test to determine who would be eligible for the compensation.
The test, called the diffusion capacity test, measures the lungs' efficiency to pa...
Read more...