{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://shimkus.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-passes-two-legal-reform-bills", "House Passes Two Legal Reform Bills", "2013-11-14", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "IL", "John Shimkus", "S000364", "shimkus.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, DC-\u00a0Congressman John Shimkus (R, Illinois-15) supported House passage of two pieces of legislation related to legal reforms.\nOn Wednesday the House passed the Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency (FACT) Act (HR 982), which would require that trusts formed through bankruptcy proceedings to benefit victims of asbestos be required to file quarterly statements.\n\u201cThese statements would simply allow the public to see who is getting paid how much from these trusts,\u201d Shimkus said.\nOn Thursday the House passed the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act (HR 2655), which would remove the provisions prohibiting sanctions against attorneys who file misinformation and then correct it later.\n\u201cBasically, if you file incorrectly, you would be held responsible for that misrepresentation to the federal court and would not be allowed to fix it later,\u201d Shimkus explained.\u00a0 \u201cThis makes it imperative that lawsuits are filed correctly the first time.\u201d\nBoth measures passed with bipartisan majorities and now head to the Senate.\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://shimkus.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-passes-two-legal-reform-bills"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4274539425969124, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}