[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 17 (Tuesday, February 26, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H538-H539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           IMPARTIAL INVESTIGATIONS WILL HIGHLIGHT THE TRUTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I have introduced this evening legislation 
that calls for a special prosecutor to be named to look into the whole 
Enron mess.
  Sure, this is a business scandal, and congressional committees are 
looking into reforms of our auditing practices of public corporations 
and the safety of employee pension plans. But this is a scandal that 
goes far beyond that. This

[[Page H539]]

is a scandal that shows the pervasive corruption in American politics.
  My legislation asks for a special prosecutor to look into the 
relationship between Enron and the manipulation of the stock market and 
its value per share; to look into the relationship between 
contributions by Enron to the President, the Vice President, Cabinet 
officers, other administration officials, and congresspeople.
  I am asking the prosecutor to look into the influence of Enron on 
Federal and State legislation, including, in particular, the effort to 
deregulate energy markets, both in States and in the Nation as a whole.
  Finally, I ask for the prosecutor to look into the relationship 
between Enron and our whole Federal and State regulatory system.
  When we went through the energy crisis in California in the summer of 
2000 and since, many of us claimed that this was not a supply and 
demand crisis but a crisis of manipulation of our market; and, in fact, 
that criminal manipulation resulted in the theft of anywhere between 
$20 billion and $40 billion from California ratepayers.
  Enron and a small group of its friends in the energy industry were 
the perpetrators of this crime. We took evidence of that crime, many of 
us in California, to our supposed protector, the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission. They investigated, or so they say, the 
situation, and they found no wrongdoing.
  In fact, now that the spotlight is burning brightly on Enron, FERC 
has suddenly announced that they are going to look into this matter 
again. Why, after an investigation which was smoke and mirrors, do they 
say, ``Let us look again''? I think this FERC, what I call the Federal 
Enron Rubber-Stamping Commission, wants to preempt other investigations 
and stop a real look into the relationship between Enron and the crimes 
that were committed in the electricity market in California.
  So we cannot let FERC, the Federal Enron Rubber-stamping Commission, 
take over this investigation. We must give this to an independent and 
thorough investigation by a special prosecutor.
  We have to go beyond the congressional investigations into the 
business practices of Enron and the problems that they caused, the 
tragedies they caused, because this is a bigger problem, and the 
American people should not allow this investigation to stop with only a 
few business reforms instituted and maybe one or two folks thrown into 
jail. They must demand the investigation of the whole corruption of our 
political system.
  We know about the contributions to both administrations in recent 
history. We know about the contributions to congresspeople. We know 
about the separate meetings Enron had with the Vice President and the 
energy task force of the White House over an 8-month period to 
determine the energy policy of this Nation.
  We know that the seventh biggest company in the United States, with 
revenues of over $100 billion, was making our energy policy. We know 
that Cabinet members came from Enron right into this administration. We 
know that the CEO of Enron, Ken Lay, personally submitted names and 
interviewed candidates to be members of our Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission.
  We know the connections, close connections, between this 
administration and Enron. It was those connections that caused this 
scandal, and it was the connections between Enron and State 
legislatures and State legislators and State regulatory commissions and 
Federal regulatory commissions that caused their success.
  Not only the failure of Enron is what ought to be investigated but 
why they flew so high for so long and allowed the stealing of so many 
billions from so many people.
  So we have to look at Enron with a neutral, unbiased look. It seems 
to me that neither the administration nor this Congress can do that, so 
that is why I am calling for a special prosecutor. Enron must be fully 
examined so the American people can understand why and how our 
political system has been hijacked.

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