[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 112 (Friday, August 3, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


         CONCERN-REGARDING BUSINESS OWNERS AND THEIR EMPLOYEES

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CORRINE BROWN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 2, 2001

  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker and fellow Members of Congress, I 
want to alert you to a matter of concern that I have regarding business 
owners and their employees, particularly small business owners, within 
our country. This problem has been told to me by some of my 
constituents and is a problem about which business owners throughout 
the country have written to you.
  We are a nation that is built upon the rule of law. This has assured 
a system of accountability for our conduct as individuals, businesses 
and institutions. Congress, as elected representatives, meets and acts 
to improve and refine the system in order to protect the people and 
their property. The foundation as framed by our nation's founders in 
the Constitution is the concept of due process and the right thereof. 
We each have the assurance that the law protects our person and 
property from libelous, slanderous, and otherwise tortuous interference 
with our reputation or business. Unfortunately, I have learned that we 
have within our country a private organization that with the appearance 
of being quasi-governmental and without any legal or regulatory 
oversight and control can libel and slander and tortuously interfere 
with a small business. They can do so with virtual immunity. This 
organization is the National Better Business Bureau and their franchise 
local Better Business Bureaus. At times, some of these bureaus classify 
small business owners as unsatisfactory, libel and slander them with 
opinion and innuendo, and provide them no due process to correct the 
problem. If sued in court, they argue qualified immunity under the 
guise of the public good. No one disputes the right of a Better 
Business Bureau to print facts. It is when they print falsehoods, 
opinion, or negative innuendo that a mechanism for redress or 
correction must be assured.
  When closely examined, however, one finds that there are Better 
Business Bureaus that arbitrarily and capriciously exclude and 
negatively classify those they don't like. They also frequently rate 
companies with terrible records as being satisfactory. No written 
guidelines or rules are available that require the Better Business 
Bureau to adhere to any legal standard in their dealings with business. 
(With the internet, the conduct of one local Better Business Bureau is 
then taken as true and disseminated everywhere.) The Better Business 
Bureaus also charge money for these reports. They make money without 
responsibility for how they make it. Why are they above the law and 
other businesses?
  On a first-hand basis, I recently inquired of the National Better 
Business Bureau regarding the process and I was met with hostility and 
rebuke. Prominent members of my community who tried to ascertain 
information about how to redress a concern with a local Better Business 
Bureau were hung up on by senior ranking National Better Business 
Bureau employees.
  The process I have described is not in the public's best interest. It 
is not appropriate for us to allow our business owners and their 
employees, the men and women who make our country strong, to be exposed 
to this arbitrary and capricious process. A right to redress the 
actions of the Better Business Bureau when libelous, slanderous, 
arbitrary, or capricious action is apparent is a fundamental right we 
must insure. Thank you.

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