July 09, 2004

The Class Action Fairness Act -- which we've discussed here, here, here, and here -- has once again failed to reach a vote on the Senate floor. Democrats opposed to the bill sought to tack on pet-issue, non-germane amendments, among them raising the minimum wage and addressing "global warming, mental health insurance and native Hawaiian rights." Although open to the minimum wage amendment proposal, Majority Leader Frist balked at the additional stream of proposed amendments, and the bill got only 44 votes -- well short of the requisite 60 -- on cloture, i.e., a motion to end debate and vote on the bill. In the fall, the bill had received 59 votes, but since that time three Democrats who had opposed the bill, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Chuck Schumer of New York, and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, had come out in support of the bill, with some modifications. But Trial Lawyers, Inc. appears to have won in the end, yet again preventing the majority of the Senate from taking action. So the wait goes on...