[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 41 (Monday, March 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2656]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   REPUBLICAN LEGAL REFORM IS A SHAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. DeFazio] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, let me start by saying I am not an 
attorney. I am one of probably a minority in this Congress who is not 
an attorney.
  But I have taken recourse to the courts. I live in the Pacific 
Northwest. When a scam was run on the Northwest called WPPSS, 
Washington Public Power Supply System, that promised us five nuclear 
powerplants to produce power without cost for only $4 billion, and it 
ultimately cost $10 billion, and all but one was never completed.
  I launched a ratepayer lawsuit in court. On the other side of the 
courtroom were a couple of hundred lawyers.
  Now, under this bill, ratepayers will not be suing anymore because 
they will have to pay for those 200 high-priced corporate lawyers on 
the other side of the room. I have 1 lawyer, a local guy, pro bono, me, 
and 26 other citizens. That will not happen anymore under the 
Republican view of what is wrong with the legal system in America.
  There are problems, and the American people are frustrated, but they 
have perverted that frustration into a bill that is an abomination. The 
Republican spinmeisters have worked overtime for this week's 
production, and it is a production. They pretend this is a relief for 
Main Street America, for people who are overburdened by litigation. But 
with breathtaking bait-and-switch, they produced a bill beyond the 
dreams of the most corrupt corporate swindlers in this country.
  It is payback and payoff time, America.
  First we have the Corporate Intimidation Act. I have already 
explained that. It is called loser pays. If the ratepayer wants to go 
to court and sue a multi-billion-dollar corporation: ``Hey, check your 
checkbook. If you can afford to pay for all the lawyers they trot into 
the court, go right ahead.'' I do not think there will be too many 
lawsuits filed by ratepayers anymore, but maybe that is the objective 
of this proposed bill.
  It is also a blank check for bunco artists. We know that Wall Street 
is suffering. They are suffering because of litigation, those poor 
people on Wall Street, those poor thousand-dollar-an-hour poor lawyers. 
You know, it is tough.
  Well, they have a new defense now, and it is called, ``I forget.'' 
And under this bill, the one coming up on Wednesday, they can say, 
``Well, gee, we would have disclosed those defects in our prospectus 
for you, but I forget.'' So, hire a thousand-dollar lawyer; he forgot. 
That is now a defense.
  But this is for Main Street America, remember that, this is for Main 
Street America. Sure, it is for Main Street America. Who buys those 
securities, who gets defrauded? There will not be another Charles 
Keating under this bill, thank God there will not be another Charles 
Keating defrauding the taxpayers of millions of dollars. It will not 
prevent the fraud, but it will prevent the litigation against Charles 
Keating. That is great. That resolves the problem with the legal system 
in America.
  This is just what main street needs at a time of the bankruptcy of 
Orange County, the Barings Bank, speculation going on wildly. When your 
IRA disappears or your little pension plan, because of a bunco artist, 
don't worry, you will not be able to go to court anymore. That is what 
this bill is all about.
  Finally, we have the tort reform. We have heard a lot of States 
rights from that side of the aisle. This will take States rights and 
rip it into shreds; 200 years of State precedents in tort reform will 
be overruled by the Federal Government only when it protects corporate 
interests.
  You know, there will be a 15-year ban on litigation to get any 
product, any product, unless a business is harmed, so they will be able 
to go in and sue for commercial losses. Your wife, husband, mother, 
son, is killed by a defective product? After 15 years, tough luck. Your 
company loses some money with the defective product, after 15 years? 
Welcome to court.
  This is for Main Street America? No, it is not for Main Street 
America. This has one very simple thing underlying it. It used to be 
that all men and women were equal before the law. Under the new 
Republican proposal, all dollars are equal before the law, and the 
corporations have a lot more of them than we do. That is what this is 
all about, in, many, many ways that are yet to be told. Watch the 
debate this week, listen, pick up the covers, look underneath. This is 
not for main street. It is for Wall Street.


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