N001026
Thursday, December 27, 2001 7:31 PM
Additional Funding
This is based on my understanding of what I have read here and read/heard from media. I may be wrong, but I think you will get the idea anyway.
There is a provision for funding the compensation fund other than the "taxpayer":
(c) ADDITIONAL FUNDING-
(1) IN GENERAL- The Attorney General is authorized to accept such amounts as may be contributed by individuals, business concerns, or other entities to carry out this title, under such terms and conditions as the Attorney General may impose.
(2) USE OF SEPARATE ACCOUNT- In making payments under this section, amounts contained in any account containing funds provided under paragraph (1) shall be used prior to using appropriated amounts.
There is also an estimate of the number of claimants:
5) An estimate of the total number of respondents and the amount of time estimated for an average respondent to respond: 5,000 claimants with an average of 6.0 hours per response.
I understand that an estimate for a average payout is $1.6 Million.
So I guess if all claimants went this route, you could estimate the total payout at about $8 Billion.
I understand that the airlines are being "protected" by placing a limit on suits against them so that it does not exceed their liability coverage. I heard that for United, that was $1.5 Billion per attack. I'm not sure if this is one attack involving 2 planes or 2 separate attacks. But United has either $1.5B or $3B coverage. I will assume that American is in the same boat.
Just to be 'nice', lets assume that 9/11 is one attack. So there is $1.5B coverage for United and $1.5B coverage for American, for a total of $3B. This is the 'obligation' of the insurance provider. I have not heard anything about the insurance providers 'being in trouble' or 'not wanting to pay'. So I think the following should be done to provide "Additional Funding" :
In a perfect world there is $3B available and 5,000 claimants, that works out to $600,000 per claimant. For each claimant that files for and gets compensation from this fund, the first $600,000 for that claimant should be payable by the insurance carriers ($300,000 from the United insurance provider, $300,000 from the American provider ). The remainder of the $3B of liability coverage would stay with the airline/insurance provider for paying other suits filed (by those who did not accept this fund payment and therefore waived their right to file a separate suit, or by anyone else who wanted to). The cap would still remain - total liability limited to the coverage amount.
Frankly, it seems like a win-for-everybody to me. The airlines are still protected. The insurance companies get a lot of 'warm, fuzzy' press coverage (see how patriotic they are). The taxpayer only gets stuck with the overage, not the entire amount. I am sure that between the President, Congress, Department of Justice, blah-blah-blah all parties could be convinced that this is the way to go! Since all kinds of 'special' laws/regulations have been put in effect for this event, I don't see that one more typing up all the loose ends of this type of agreement would be a problem! I would be very interested in learning why this cannot work, if that is the position of "those in charge".
I would also like to suggest that you make the "additional funding" figures available to the public on this website. I would be very interested to see what is generated. I haven't heard anything about this topic in the media! I would have thought that the "Bill Gates"/"Ted Turner"/"King-or-Prince Whoever"-types would be stepping forward. I haven't seen anything about whether or not this would be considered a charitable contribution - but I think it should!
Keep in touch -
Individual Comment
Denver, CO