Excerpt from S. 687, the Product Liability Fairness Act: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Consumer of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, First Session, September 23, 1993 The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room SR-253 of the Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Richard H.Bryan (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Staff members assigned to this hearing: Moses Boyd, senior counsel, and Claudia A. Simons, staff counsel; and Sherman Joyce, minority staff counsel. Opening Statement Of Senator Bryan Senator Bryan. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome everybody to this morning's subcommittee hearing. This morning we will examine legislation to establish Federal product liability standards. This legislation, S. 687, was introduced by Senator Rockefeller and is cosponsored by Senators Gorton, Danforth, Dodd, and Lieberman. Senator Lieberman is joining us this morning and will share with us his views in a moment. Product liability is a body of law that traditionally has been fashioned by the States through court decisions known as the common law, and more recently by actions of State legislatures. For more than a decade, this committee has wrestled with proposals to establish Federal uniform standards. The proponents have argued that such legislation is needed to ensure more efficiency and predictability in the system. They contend that the current system is costly, slow, inefficient, and hindering innovation and competitiveness on the part of U.S. business. Opponents, on the other hand, argue that the current system is working properly to compensate victims. They contend that if changes in the system are needed, they can be appropriately implemented at the State level. They believe that the critics of the current system have failed to establish their burden of proof that, indeed, there is a basis for the establishment of Federal legislative action. Today we will hear from witnesses who will represent both sides of this issue. I believe it is important for this subcommittee to build a record this session, as we have in the two previous sessions that I have been privileged to chair this subcommittee. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.