[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 97 (Wednesday, July 17, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H4771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H4771]]
                          CORPORATE CRIMINALS

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, when one is an executive of a large 
corporation, one has a job that carries tremendous responsibility. Ford 
Motors, Chevron, Texaco, and IBM have more employees than many 
countries have citizens. Wal-Mart, EXXON, and General Motors have 
annual budgets larger than the gross domestic products of many nations.
  When the executives of Enron, which was America's fifth largest 
company, cooked the books, the victims of their crime are not just a 
few people from Houston. Americans everywhere suffer, some severely. 
When the executives of WorldCom, which was America's 42nd largest 
employer, used tricky accounting to fool investors, everybody suffers, 
too.
  When a mugger in a back alley sticks us up at gunpoint and takes our 
wallets, that is bad. But is it not worse when a man in a thousand 
dollar suit steals millions of dollars from people who are counting on 
his honesty to help them keep their jobs or to retire?
  Yesterday, the House voted for a new law to severely punish corporate 
crooks for their crimes. We should conference with the other body 
immediately so we can send a bill to the President as soon as possible.

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