(JUNEAU) - The Alaska House of Representatives unanimously passed HJR 9 yesterday. The resolution, sponsored by Representative Gabrielle LeDoux (R-Kodiak) urges the United States Congress refrain from enacting any legislation that would reduce or delay the punitive damages awarded to more than 32,000 plaintiffs as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill as finally determined by the federals courts.

"The legislative process should not do an end run around the judicial process. This is what balance of power is all about," said Representative LeDoux.

It has been ten years since a verdict was reached in the Exxon Valdez lawsuits and yet plaintiffs are still waiting for a resolution of the lawsuit. In previous years, ExxonMobile Corporation has lobbied Congress in an attempt to reduce the punitive damages that the company would have paid for the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Representative LeDoux went on to say, "This is a matter to be resolved by the court system. Our resolution simply asks that Congress let that happen."

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