May 4, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD— SENATE S6155 

[Rollcall Vote No. 150 Leg.] 

YEAS—56 

Abraham 

Ashcroft 

Baucus 

Bennett 

Bond 

Brown 

Burns 

Campbell 

Chafee 

Coats 

Cochran 

Coverdell 

Craig 

D’Amato 

DeWine 

Dodd 

Dole 

Domenici 

Dorgan 

Exon 

Faircloth 

Frist 

Gorton 

Gramm 

Grams 

Grassley 

Gregg 

Heflin 

Helms 

Hutchison 

Inhofe 

Jeffords 

Kassebaum 

Kempthorne 

Kyl 

Lott 

Lugar 

Mack 

McCain 

McConnell 

Moseley-Braun 

Murkowski 

Nickles 

Pressler 

Pryor 

Robb 

Rockefeller 

Roth 

Santorum 

Smith 

Snowe 

Specter 

Stevens 

Thomas 

Thompson 

Warner 

NAYS—43 

Akaka 

Biden 

Bingaman 

Boxer 

Bradley 

Breaux 

Bryan 

Bumpers 

Byrd 

Cohen 

Conrad 

Daschle 

Feingold 

Feinstein 

Ford 

Glenn 

Graham 

Harkin 

Hatch 

Hatfield 

Hollings 

Inouye 

Johnston 

Kennedy 

Kerrey 

Kerry 

Kohl 

Lautenberg 

Leahy 

Levin 

Lieberman 

Mikulski 

Moynihan 

Murray 

Nunn 

Packwood 

Reid 

Sarbanes 

Shelby 

Simon 

Simpson 

Thurmond 

Wellstone 

NOT VOTING—1 

Pell 

So, the motion to lay on the table 

was agreed to. 

Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I move 

to reconsider the vote by which the 

motion was agreed to. 

Mr. LOTT. I move to lay that motion 

on the table. 

The motion to lay on the table was 

agreed to. 

f 

CLOTURE MOTION 

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. 

KYL). Under the previous order, the 

clerk will report the motion to invoke 

cloture. 

The legislative clerk read as follows: 

CLOTURE MOTION

We the undersigned Senators in accordance 

with the provisions of rule XXII of the 

Standing Rules of the Senate do hereby 

move to bring to a close debate on the Gorton Amendment No. 596 to H.R. 956, the 

Product Liability bill. 

Bob Dole, Slade Gorton, Rick Santorum, 

Jim Inhofe, Conrad Burns, Pete V. 

Domenici, Hank Brown, Spencer Abraham, Paul D. Coverdell, Larry E. Craig, 

Dirk Kempthorne, Bob Smith, Trent 

Lott, Chuck Grassley, Judd Gregg, 

Mitch McConnell. 

f 

CALL OF THE ROLL 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the call of the roll has 

been waived. 

f 

VOTE 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The 

question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the Gorton amendment numbered 596 to H.R. 956, the 

product liability bill, shall be brought 

to a close? The yeas and nays are required. The clerk will call the roll. 

The assistant legislative clerk called 

the roll. 

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Rhode Island [Mr. PELL] is 

absent on official business. 

I further announce that, if present 

and voting, the Senator from Rhode Island [Mr. PELL] would vote ‘‘aye.’’

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there 

any other Senators in the Chamber 

who desire to vote? 

The yeas and nays resulted—yeas 46, 

nays 53, as follows: 

[Rollcall Vote No. 151 Leg.] 

YEAS—46 

Abraham 

Ashcroft 

Bennett 

Bond 

Brown 

Burns 

Campbell 

Chafee 

Coats 

Coverdell 

Craig 

DeWine 

Dole 

Domenici 

Exon 

Faircloth 

Frist 

Gorton 

Gramm 

Grams 

Grassley 

Gregg 

Hatch 

Hatfield 

Helms 

Hutchison 

Inhofe 

Jeffords 

Kassebaum 

Kempthorne 

Kyl 

Lieberman 

Lott 

Lugar 

Mack 

McCain 

McConnell 

Murkowski 

Nickles 

Pressler 

Santorum 

Smith 

Snowe 

Stevens 

Thomas 

Warner 

NAYS—53 

Akaka 

Baucus 

Biden 

Bingaman 

Boxer 

Bradley 

Breaux 

Bryan 

Bumpers 

Byrd 

Cochran 

Cohen 

Conrad 

D’Amato 

Daschle 

Dodd 

Dorgan 

Feingold 

Feinstein 

Ford 

Glenn 

Graham 

Harkin 

Heflin 

Hollings 

Inouye 

Johnston 

Kennedy 

Kerrey 

Kerry 

Kohl 

Lautenberg 

Leahy 

Levin 

Mikulski 

Moseley-Braun 

Moynihan 

Murray 

Nunn 

Packwood 

Pryor 

Reid 

Robb 

Rockefeller 

Roth 

Sarbanes 

Shelby 

Simon 

Simpson 

Specter 

Thompson 

Thurmond 

Wellstone 

NOT VOTING—1 

Pell 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this 

vote, the yeas are 46, the nays are 53. 

Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn, not having voted in the 

affirmative, the motion is rejected. 

Mr. ROCKEFELLER addressed the 

Chair. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia. 

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, 

assuming that this is free time, I ask 

unanimous consent that the Senator 

from California, Senator FEINSTEIN, be 

allowed to speak for 10 minutes. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Time is 

controlled and equally divided. Without objection, the Senator from California is recognized. 

Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I thank the Chair 

and I thank the Senator from West Virginia. 

Mr. President, I have listened carefully over the past weeks of this debate—pro and con—on product liability. I am not an attorney, so I have 

tried hard to work through what is fair 

and what is not. While I would like to 

have an opportunity to vote for cloture 

on a more narrowly crafted bill, I cannot vote for this bill with the Dole 

amendment included. To do so, I believe, would extend the impact of the 

bill far beyond the limited field of 

product liability, and impose major 

limitations to redress of grievances 

across the board in all civil actions, 

without the opportunity of Committee 

hearings in the Senate and consideration of how the bill would impact 

other specific areas of the law. 

Anyone who has read ‘‘The Rainmaker,’’ the newest best seller, can see 

what impact the Dole amendment 

would have, for example, in insurance 

cases. Insurance companies would be 

able to do exactly what was done in 

that book, act in bad faith. And I simply cannot support this. 

I believe that Senators GORTON and 

ROCKEFELLER have worked hard to 

craft a bill with reasonable reforms 

that could pass this body. I was particularly pleased with the compromise 

reached with the Snowe amendment to 

limit punitive damages to two times 

compensatory, which is now part of 

this bill. This replaces the original 

fixed cap of $250,000, or three times economic damages, whichever is greater. I 

believe this would be a fair model 

which takes into consideration both 

women and children whose earnings 

may be limited or nonexistent. 

I find myself in strong support of 

other major provisions of this bill, as 

well. Specifically, I support the imposition of a 2-year statute of limitations 

from the time the injury and its cause 

are discovered for a plaintiff to bring a 

lawsuit. This provision is actually 

more permissive than that in many 

States, and California. This provision 

is actually victim and plaintiff friendly. 

Two, the imposition of a 20-year statute of repose, an outer time limit on 

litigation involving workplace durable 

and capital goods. This is a fair standard of repose. 

The bill would eliminate product 

seller’s liability—including that 

against wholesalers, distributors, and 

retailers—for a manufacturer’s errors. 

Sellers would remain liable in cases of 

their own negligence. For example, if a 

seller removed the manufacturer’s 

label from a toy that said it is not appropriate for children under 6 years of 

age, and a child was subsequently injured, the seller would be liable. 

The bill would preserve a plaintiff’s 

power to sue one defendant, theoretically the deep pocket, for the full 

amount of economic damages, but 

eliminate such joint and several liability for noneconomic damages, such as 

pain and suffering. 

It would allow either party to offer 

to participate in alternative dispute 

resolution—something that I very 

much thought and hoped would be part 

of this bill, and which I believe is an 

important part, especially for the 

plaintiffs who have small claims. 

The bill would bar recovery of a 

plaintiff who is more than 50 percent 

responsible for causing their accident 

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