Senate Takes Up Regulatory Reform

Abstract

Congress has reconvened following its annual spring district work period. The Senate has before it the task of moving along legislation, already approved by the House in fulfillment of the Republican Contract With America/7 that provides regulatory and legal relief for corporations and individuals. The House, for its part, faces the daunting task of finding a way to pay for the package of corporate and individual tax cuts it approved in early April that by some estimates will cost the government $200 billion in foregone revenue over the next five years. First up on the Senate agenda—it was being debated at press time—was S. 565, a bill that would establish a uniform national product liability law. As reported by the Commerce Committee, the bill would limit punitive damages to cases where an injury was caused by the defendant's conscious, flagrant indifference to the safety of others and the lesser of $250,000 or three times the ...