Press Room Home

June 9, 2005

Contact: Carlton Carl
202-965-3500 x369

Statement of Todd A. Smith
President, Association of Trial Lawyers of America

A Poorly Polling, Wildly Disconnected Congressional Leadership Tries to Shift Focus

In response to the June 9 Senate Republican press conference with corporate interests and the insurance lobby attacking the civil justice system, ATLA President Todd A. Smith issued the following statement:

"The drug Vioxx killed 55,000 Americans, almost as many as died in Vietnam. But instead of improving drug safety and reforming the FDA, this Congress wants to give immunity from lawsuits to the drug industry in the name of 'medical liability reform.'

"Millions of Americans are still out of work. Single parents can't afford health care on fast food wages. But this Congress is instead working to literally make a federal case out of the one and only pending obesity lawsuit in the country.

"Americans want clean air, clean water, and clean communities. They're concerned about more mercury in the air and arsenic in the water. But this Congress is instead working to pass an unfair and unworkable asbestos bill that protects corporate polluters, including W.R. Grace and Co., under criminal indictment for poisoning communities across the country with asbestos.

"Not a single proposal they've talked about today will make health care safer or more accessible, make it easier for hard-working Americans to find good jobs, or stop toxic polluters from poisoning our families' air and water.

"This Congress is wildly disconnected from the American people. Theirs is the agenda of the insurance industry, drug companies, and corporate defense attorneys."