I’m not sure what’s more frustrating: Democrats’ inability to use the power voters handed them, or their refusal to?
Take for example state Rep. Jamie Pedersen, who as chair of the House Committee on Judiciary has the power to kill any bill coming before his committee, simply by refusing to bring it up for a vote. Some might find that a little undemocratic, but that’s the way our legislative system works, and that’s why winning and holding majorities are so important — the majority party gets to appoint the committee chairs, and thus control the agenda.
And regardless of party, committee chairs tend to be pretty damn thorough in asserting this power. If you don’t enjoy the support of the chair, your bill is dead. Simple as that. But not, apparently, if the chair is Rep. Pedersen, at least when it comes to HB 2507, special legislation limiting asbestos related claims against a single, out-of-state corporation.
According to the House Bill Report, HB 2507 would have the following effect:
A corporation that assumed or incurred asbestos-related liabilities before January 1, 1972 as a result of a merger or consolidation with another corporation has limited asbestos-related liability. The cumulative successor asbestos-related liability is limited to the fair market value of the total gross assets of the predecessor corporation.
In reality, this bill was narrowly crafted to benefit only one corporation, Pennsylvania based Crown Holdings, a company with 2008 revenues of over $7.7 billion, and annual asbestos liability expenses of only $53 million, worldwide. If enacted, the bill would exempt Crown from any further liability stemming from its 1965 merger with Mundet Cork Corporation, and that company’s asbestos insulation that was widely used at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and other Washington state facilities.
The bill would cost our state’s workers compensation fund about $600,000 between now and 2015, while denying any future claims from workers who were harmed by the product. With Washington ranking 7th in the nation in asbestos related deaths, and King County ranking 4th nationally on a per capita basis, that would leave untold numbers of local workers unable to recover damages.
But that’s neither here nor there. This kind of corporate favoritism is common in both parties (just take a look at our state’s tax code), the common good be damned. But what’s not so common is the way Rep. Pedersen, as chair, has publicly postured his opposition to the bill (he voted against it) while allowing it to pass his committee.
In an email to a constituent, Rep. Pedersen voiced his concern that the bill would reduce compensation to injured workers, yet explained his actions as such:
A majority of members of my committee (seven of eleven) support the bill. So I concluded that I would not stand in the way of a vote on the bill and would let its fate be decided by the larger body. If it is any consolation, I think it is extremely unlikely that the bill will pass out of the Senate.
Yes, a majority of his committee supported the bill, including all three of the Republicans present, but a majority of Democrats did not. And yet Rep. Pedersen allowed the bill to pass this major legislative hurdle.
One can only assume that either Rep. Pedersen is a crappy politician when comes to effective execution of political power, or that as a corporate attorney himself, he’s actually being a bit disingenuous in stating his opposition to the bill.
Either way, he doesn’t come off looking so good.
This bill screws workers, period. There’s nothing new about that. However, there’s an easy and simple way to avoid getting screwed by powerful corporations and their legislator lackeys: Don’t work for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Or any shipyard. Or any employer. Capitalists don’t work, so why should you? I don’t work! If you don’t work, you can’t get asbestosis, nor can the employer who concealed workplace hazards from you use their political pull to make you bear the medical costs and other losses all by yourself. If you don’t work, nobody can do this to you.
Bunch ‘O useless turds. How much stock in Crown Holdings do the people pushing this bill own?
K&L Gates thanks Representative Pedersen for his fine work and will toast him over cocktails and tiny wieners in the Columbia Tower Club tonight at 8pm sharp. Members only and approriate attire required.
p.s. Crown Holdings plans an unlimited and secret disclosure to Rep. Pedersen’s reelection campaign and will provide all the cocktails at tonight’s celebration.
notaboomer @ 3 & 4
K&L / Preston Gates & Ellis is no longer in the Columbia Tower… but Rep. Pedersen eats in the K&L cafeteria all the time – no joke.
Looks like this limits liability to the total asset amount of Crown and not the entire corporstion that now owns Crown.
Why should the gaining entity assume additional liability?
@3
cocktails and tiny wieners ?
I think you mean “jumbo shrimp, camenbert and roe……..”
The tiny wieners are just for the staff at the annual picnic.
@6 obviously there’s some law that makes them get that liability in the asbestos context….and this is a way to avoid the liability….
the moral reason is it’s totally easy for corporations to buy and sell each other afew times over a weekend to restructure and just defeat the liability of the asbestos using manufacturer or insulating company….a/k/a it’s all a scam, but if you are a stupid duped right winger, you love being scammed in fact you love it like those hicks loved being scammed before sean penn told them they were hicks being scammed. Getting people to love being scammed IS the scam of the big monopolies today. It works pretty well, they’re convinced hicks like most right wingers to act and think like total morons. And by that I mean people with disabilities, say an IQ of about 50. Like the kind of person who would ask, “aw gee, they should be alble to escape liability with a few corporate strategems, duh, uh, duh, uh, that’s what corporatiosn are FOR, so it seems awfully suspicious if somewhere a corporation is prevented from screwing someone! I really feel for that corporation.”
Forgetting the guy who’s dying right this minute just hoping his last year or two will be sweetened by some compensation for working in asbestos dust fifty years ago….you don’t really care about the workers, do you?
Hey Goldy,
Did you think to pick up your phone and call him?