HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

Washington, Jul 29, 2008 - House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today called attention to a new analysis that tracks dozens of special-interest pork provisions quietly inserted into bills by Congress to benefit the scandal-plagued American trial lawyer industry, and said he will introduce legislation to terminate the trial lawyer pork if Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) fails to shut it down herself and schedule hearings on illegal trial lawyer activity.

“Congress shouldn’t be giving pork to the trial lawyer industry; it should be investigating the trial lawyer industry,” Boehner said.  “Speaker Pelosi should immediately shut these pork projects down and instruct her committee chairs to begin a bipartisan investigation of trial lawyer abuses.  If she won’t, I will introduce legislation myself to terminate these special-interest giveaways, and Republicans will seek other public forums to ensure these issues are properly pursued.”

The new analysis, compiled by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform, was the focus of a report in this weekend’s DC Examiner.  It identifies 48 different provisions quietly inserted into bills on behalf of the trial lawyer industry during the 110^th Congress.  Boehner and other lawmakers have called for Congress to investigate reports of job-killing corruption in the trial lawyer industry, but the Democratic leaders of Congress – all of whom have received generous financial contributions from trial lawyers – have refused to hold even a single hearing.

“Instead of ‘draining’ the swamp in Washington, the Democratic Congress has filled it up with trial lawyer pork at the expense of taxpayers and American jobs,” Boehner said.  “Speaker Pelosi has the power to bring this to a halt.  She should do the right thing.”

NOTE: Despite public requests from Boehner and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, House Democratic leaders have refused to hold hearings on the Milberg Weiss trial lawyer scandal, in which authorities blew the whistle on a scheme of corruption involving illegal kickbacks to plaintiffs.  Former powerhouse trial lawyer William Lerach, sentenced earlier this year to a two-year term in federal prison for his role in the scandal, said such illegal activity is an “industry practice” in the trial lawyer business.  In a May 2, 2008 letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Pelosi, Boehner and Smith called for hearings to determine the extent to which such “industry practices” are hurting America’s economy and destroying jobs through frivolous lawsuits.  To date, Conyers and Pelosi have not responded. 

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