(Bush) Administration uses rules to limit consumer lawsuits

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

Washington - Faced with an unfriendly Congress, the Bush administration has found another, quieter way to make it more difficult for consumers to sue businesses over faulty products. It's rewriting the bureaucratic rulebook.

Lawsuit limits have been included in 51 rules proposed or adopted since 2005 by agency bureaucrats governing just about everything Americans use: drugs, cars, railroads, medical devices and food.

Decried by consumer advocates and embraced by industry, the agencies' use of the government's rule-making authority represents the administration's final act in a long-standing drive to shield companies from lawsuits.

President Bush has campaigned for lawsuit reform since his days as Texas governor. As president, he has made little headway on the issue in Congress. He's been thwarted by Democrats every time he's tried to tackle the issue head-on.




Read more: http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=a0257ce6-4974-4d48-a186-37d3415c28c8

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Congress to hear from critics of federal rules that limit lawsuits against drugmakers
May 14, 2008: 06:30 AM EST


NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Doctors, lawyers and a movie star are expected to criticize government regulations Wednesday that have shielded drug and medical device companies from lawsuits brought by patients.

For decades consumers who felt they had been injured by a drug or device have used state laws to sue companies for damages. But in 2006 the Food and Drug Administration said any product that meets its standards for approval is not subject to state liability laws.

The Supreme Court and others are still grappling with the issue, but consumer advocates fear rulings that favor federal rules could make it more difficult for patients to sue drugmakers _ potentially saving those companies billions of dollars.

More than a half dozen witnesses are expected to testify on the issue at a 10 a.m. hearing before the House Committee on Oversight, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Film actor Dennis Quaid is expected to join the usual lineup of medical, regulatory and legal experts. Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, are suing Deerfield, Ill.-based Baxter Healthcare Corp. for putting vastly different doses of a blood-thinner into confusingly similar packages.

more:http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/e5218d4f3476db77679c18157b9c1a7f.htm

[maddezmom]

1. watch the hearing live

http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1946

[ToughLuck]

2. e-mail your reps. everyone..this another attempt to undermine the"little" guy

[nykym]

3. Okay

Instaed of fighting bush's little end run lets just make the FDA rules tougher! and when the products don't meet the standards they won't go to market!

"For decades consumers who felt they had been injured by a drug or device have used state laws to sue companies for damages. But in 2006 the Food and Drug Administration said any product that meets its standards for approval is not subject to state liability laws."

[Supersedeas]

4. the Bushist iron triangle -- where the cronies come to roost

[Winterblues]

5. Regulations carry the weight of Law

While Bush* can not legally write Law, the Administration can write regulations and they carry the weight of Law and the people have absolutely no say what so ever. The good thing about it is that once he is gone those regulations can be changed just as quickly where Law is much harder to create or change once created..

[flashl]

6. A reset of the government to its form prior to the mal-administration is a must. nt

[sfaprog]

7. No, the pendulum must swing even further back

Clinton was way too lenient himself, with the Telecom Act of 1996, NAFTA, etc. We need massive reform. Massive. Starting with the repeal of those two pieces of legislation first.

[flashl]

8. Sorry, you are right. Its sometimes hard to suppress my illness ...

Bush Derangement Syndrome

[Acadia Blue]

10. Don't agree with you. Perhaps if you are injured by big corps. you

will then have compassion. It usually takes that for a republican.

[sfaprog]

12. ?

What? I not only want corporations stripped of their entitlements and shields, I want them abolished.

[Acadia Blue]

9. IOW some casualities of consumers are acceptable.

[Acadia Blue]

11. He is tryiing to complete his fascist plan before he leaves