Asbestos bill, which would eliminate all asbestos litigation and instead pay asbestos cancer victims from a set schedule based on their disease, is struggling to stay alive on Capitol Hill, according to some people.

“This asbestos bill is not dead. It’s not on life support. But it’s in a hospice,” said David Austern, general counsel to the Manville Trust.

Reuters reported that, “The bill was scarcely out of committee before support eroded among Republicans, who questioned whether insurers were being asked to pay too much of the cost.”

The bill has also failed to win support from labor unions. They have said the scheduled payouts to asbestos victims were insufficient and “corporations facing asbestos liabilities, like Halliburton Co., were getting too much of a break”, reported Reuters.

“If the business and insurance community is determined to get a bill like the one coming out of committee, I’d be pessimistic. But if they are willing to make it more fair to victims, I still think there’s a chance,” Jonathan Hiatt, general counsel for the AFL-CIO labor federation said.

Senator Orrin G. Hatch, a Utah Republican who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is the driving force behind the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2003.

(via Reuters)