Thursday, June 26, 2003 | 9:49 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senate negotiators drafting legislation to create a $108 billion trust fund to compensate asbestos exposure victims failed to agree on how much to compensate individual workers, lawmakers said.
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was "disappointed that we have yet to reach consensus" on the size of awards and the mechanism for guaranteeing the fund's solvency.
"I will not support a bill that contains inadequate compensation for victims," Leahy said.
The bill would cap damages and end asbestos litigation that has driven more than 60 U.S. companies into bankruptcy over two decades.
Bit the cost to companies and insurers may balloon to more than $200 billion if award proposals sought by labor unions are adopted, industry lobbyists said.
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