Montana Standard
Montana – Today it remains legal to import, manufacture and sell products containing asbestos in the United States – despite the fact that more than 60 countries worldwide have banned the deadly fiber. In November of 2019, the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act seemed to have real momentum. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, on a bipartisan 47-1 vote, recommended it be sent to the full House. But ironically, a lobbyist generally in favor of asbestos-ban legislation — the trial-lawyer organization American Association for Justice, representing plaintiffs’ attorneys — is using its enormous power particularly among Democratic lawmakers to hold up the bill, saying it cannot support the bill as written. AAJ is seeking arcane language changes that it believes will provide a more favorable litigation environment for its members.