Class-action reform bill fails vote in senate.A bipartisan agreement hammered ham·mered adj. 1. Shaped or worked with a metalworker's hammer and often showing the marks of these tools: a bowl of hammered brass. 2. Slang Drunk or intoxicated. Adj. out months ago to guarantee passage of an industry-backed class-action reform bill fell apart in the Senate July 8 after lawmakers couldn't agree on limiting amendments to the bill. The Class Action Fairness Act, S. 2062, was the last remaining part of the GOP's tort-reform agenda, which included bills seeking to change the way asbestos and medical-malpractice lawsuits are handled--also measures sought and supported by the insurance industry. The bill failed on a procedural question, not on an up-or-down vote. The Senate voted 44-43, largely along party lines, against invoking cloture The procedure by which debate is formally ended in a meeting or legislature so that a vote may be taken. Cloture is a means of terminating a filibuster, which is a prolonged speech on the floor of the Senate designed to forestall legislative action. , the formal term for cutting off further debate on a bill. Failure to get the 60 votes needed for cloture meant that Democrats could filibuster filibuster, term used to designate obstructionist tactics in legislative assemblies. It has particular reference to the U.S. Senate, where the tradition of unlimited debate is very strong. It was not until 1917 that the Senate provided for cloture (i.e. it. The bill appears dead for the year, as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said shortly before the vote that there may be too little time remaining in the legislative year and too much other unfinished business to bring it up again. Insurance industry supporters say they still will push for the bill to be passed this year. "If the opportunity presents itself, we're going to push for it full bore.... If we get a chance, we'll be for it, we'll push very hard," said Gary Karr Gary Karr (b. November 20, 1941), is an American classical double bassist virtuoso, and teacher. He is the first ever full-time careerist double-bassist.[] Biography , a spokesman for the American Insurance Association. "Whether we get that chance remains to be seen. It's hard to be overwhelmingly optimistic op·ti·mist n. 1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome. 2. A believer in philosophical optimism. op about it at this point." |
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