Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I am pleased to join with the bipartisan group of Senators who are original cosponsors of the Product Liability Fairness Act of 1995 . I would also like to commend Senators Rockefeller, Gorton, and Lieberman for all of their hard work on this legislation.

The current product liability system simply does not serve anyone well. The American people know the problem--the results in a product liability case depend primarily on a person's ability to afford a good lawyer. That's true whether you are a consumer injured by an unsafe product , or a businessperson trying to defend yourself against an unjustified lawsuit.

For consumers, the studies show that injured people must wait too long for fair compensation. A recent study by the General Accounting Office found that cases take about 3 years to be resolved--longer if there is an appeal.

Other studies show dramatically different compensation for similar injuries incurred in the very same way. Wealthier and better educated people fare far better than low-income people and less well-educated people.

So the present system is not serving the needs of our injured citizens. At the same time, it's not serving the needs of American businesses. They are reluctant to introduce new products because they are not sure what kind of liability they will face under the laws of 55 States and territories.

This uncertainty is particularly difficult for small businesses, who cannot afford the huge legal costs of the present system. And these are not legal costs that fall only on unscrupulous manufacturers--many companies have run up enormous legal bills only to be vindicated by the courts. Of course, those victories are hollow at best.

And what happens if an American business is afraid to innovate, or forced to defer investment on research and development? Are those only problems for particular businesses, and unworthy of serious attention--of course not. If American businesses are unable to bring innovative products to the marketplace, or forced to take helpful products off the market, we all lose.

The search for an AIDS vaccine is a good example. At least one company, Biogen in Massachusetts, terminated its investment in an AIDS vaccine because of product liability fears.

And this problem is not limited to particular products or companies. The current product liability system threatens entire industries. The contraceptive industry is one example. A 1990 report issued by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine concluded that `product liability litigation has contributed significantly to the climate of disincentives for the development of contraceptive products.'

The American Medical Association has documented this problem:

In the early 1970's, there were 13 pharmaceutical companies actively pursuing research in contraception and fertility. Now, only one U.S. company conducts contraceptive and fertility research.

Is our country well-served by a system that prevents contraceptives, and other critical medical products, from coming to the market? Who benefits from that result?

And if the present system is not working--if it helps neither people who are injured by products nor the businesses who are trying to develop life-saving products--what should we do? Should we simply give up and walk away? Should we say that there's nothing we can do--the problem's too big for us too handle? Of course not--we owe it to the American people to try to do better.

With passage of the Product Liability Fairness Act we will do better. This legislation may not solve all of the problems in the product liability system, but it will improve that system for everyone--for the injured people who need fast and fair compensation, for consumers who need quality products to choose from, for those businesses who are at the cutting edge of international competition, and for workers who depend on a strong economy to support their families. The moderate reforms in this measure will reduce the abuses in the current system without eliminating solid protections for those who are victimized by defective or dangerous products.