Senate Sees 28 Vote Swing on Class Action Reform

FreedomWorks cheered the U.S. Senate for passing S.5, the Class Action Fairness Act, by a large bipartisan vote late yesterday. Class Action reform is a major component of the FreedomWorks’ agenda and is part of a broad and ongoing grassroots educational campaign. In the past year alone, FreedomWorks reached four million targeted citizens with information about tort reform and where elected officials stand on the issue. During this time, FreedomWorks members also generated thousands personalized letters and calls to Capitol Hill demanding legal reform.

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe commented:

“Last July, we only had 44 ‘yes’ votes in the Senate in favor of even allowing a vote on this bill, and yesterday we had 72 in favor of its passage. It’s obvious that grassroots election education activity made the difference and now we’re seeing a landslide of support for tort reform. Americans and their elected representatives clearly understand the damage that runaway lawsuits are having on the economy, and yesterday’s huge win is one result.”

“Congratulations are also in order to the Senate leadership for sticking with this important issue. Now let’s pass Class Action reform in the House and then get to work on asbestos reform and medical malpractice reform—two other areas in urgent need of Congressional action.”

FreedomWorks is running effective tort educational campaigns in a number of key battleground states, including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. In fact, 18 senators who voted to filibuster similar legislation (Motion to Invoke Cloture on S. 2062 on July 8, 2004) last year were convinced by grassroots organizations like FreedomWorks to vote to pass class action reform this year. These Senators are:

Bayh (D-IN)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Craig (R-ID)
Dodd (D-CT)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCain (R-AZ)
Reed (D-RI)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shelby (R-AL)