Former Congressional Budget Office Director Reverses Position on Asbestos

Washington, D.C. – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today pointed to an article in The Hill which noted a shift in position on the asbestos trust fund legislation by former director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Douglas Holtz-Eakin.  Holtz-Eakin now heads the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, which is funded by a $5 million grant from a foundation created by the American International Group (AIG).

“It is not surprising that Mr. Holtz-Eakin has suddenly reversed his views on the asbestos trust fund, considering he leads an organization that is indirectly funded one of the major opponents of the pending asbestos legislation,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “This drastic shift in his opinion can only be the direct result of money.”

The Hill revealed a possible conflict of interest of Holtz-Eakin’s position on the asbestos trust fund and the Greenberg-Center.  While Holtz-Eakin was serving as CBO director, he testified that the asbestos trust fund would have little cost to taxpayers.  Now, as head of the Greenberg Center, Holtz-Eakin compares the trust fund to massive entitlement in line with Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

“It is disappointing that Mr. Holtz-Eakin opposes legislation that would compensate the true asbestos victims and limit the actions of trial lawyers, especially when in his former professional position, he supported it,” Schatz concluded. 

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.