US Senate majority leader Senator Bill Frist said Senator Orin Hatch's Bill to reform the US asbestos litigation system could be revived by April 2004.
Senator Frist said that “good progress” had been made on the Bill and that legislation could be brought to the Senate by the end of March or early April.
Hatch's original Bill proposed that the mass of asbestos-related lawsuits brought in the US would be replaced by pay-outs from a trust fund supported by asbestos companies and insurers.
Widespread disagreement over the size of the proposed contributions to the fund meant the Bill became stuck in the Senate at the end of 2003.
Since then Senator Frist has held negotiations with the parties involved in an effort to resolve the situation and come up with a working solution to the problem.
