Asbestos Lawyer: Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2005

Your Asbestos Lawyer provides you with House Resolution 1390: Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2005. If you have been injured by Asbestos, this document may help you understand your Asbestos lawsuit. To find out if you have a claim, use our FREE Asbestos Case Evaluator.

SEC. 222. MANAGEMENT OF THE FUND.

(a) In General- Amounts in the Fund shall be held for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits to asbestos claimants and their beneficiaries, including those provided in subsection (c), and to otherwise defray the reasonable expenses of administering the Fund.

(b) Investments-

(1) IN GENERAL- Amounts in the Fund shall be administered and invested with the care, skill, prudence, and diligence, under the circumstances prevailing at the time of such investment, that a prudent person acting in a like capacity and manner would use.

(2) STRATEGY- The Administrator shall invest amounts in the Fund in a manner that enables the Fund to make current and future distributions to or for the benefit of asbestos claimants. In pursuing an investment strategy under this subparagraph, the Administrator shall consider, to the extent relevant to an investment decision or action--

(A) the size of the Fund;

(B) the nature and estimated duration of the Fund;

(C) the liquidity and distribution requirements of the Fund;

(D) general economic conditions at the time of the investment;

(E) the possible effect of inflation or deflation on Fund assets;

(F) the role that each investment or course of action plays with respect to the overall assets of the Fund;

(G) the expected amount to be earned (including both income and appreciation of capital) through investment of amounts in the Fund; and

(H) the needs of asbestos claimants for current and future distributions authorized under this Act.

(c) Mesothelioma Research and Treatment Centers-

(1) IN GENERAL- The Administrator shall provide $1,000,000 from the Fund for each of fiscal years 2004 through 2008 for each of up to 10 mesothelioma disease research and treatment centers.

(2) REQUIREMENTS- The Centers shall--

(A) be chosen by the Director of the National Institutes of Health;

(B) be chosen through competitive peer review;

(C) be geographically distributed throughout the United States with special consideration given to areas of high incidence of mesothelioma disease;

(D) be closely associated with Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers to provide research benefits and care to veterans, who have suffered excessively from mesothelioma;

(E) be engaged in research to provide mechanisms for detection and prevention of mesothelioma, particularly in the areas of pain management and cures;

(F) be engaged in public education about mesothelioma and prevention, screening, and treatment;

(G) be participants in the National Mesothelioma Registry; and

(H) be coordinated in their research and treatment efforts with other Centers and institutions involved in exemplary mesothelioma research.