[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 97 (Wednesday, July 17, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H4869-H4870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Jeff Miller of Florida). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) 
is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I have come to the floor of the House 
tonight to advise the American people about the status of our efforts 
to deal with the crisis of confidence in our corporate structure, which 
indeed is deep.
  Mr. Speaker, I have to say that one thing I realize all Americans 
share tonight, looking at these repeated scandals, fiscal collapses and 
debacles in the accounting structure of our corporations, all 
Americans, I think, share one belief, be they Democrats or Republicans, 
suburban, rural, north or south, and that is that we need strong 
medicine rather than weak tea in dealing with this problem. We need 
more aggressivity and not so much passivity in dealing with this 
problem. We need action rather than inaction.
  Mr. Speaker, I must report to Americans that, unfortunately, we have 
not had enough action in dealing with these problems. Let me give an 
example of what I mean by that. A few days ago in the other body a bill 
was passed to deal with these problems by a vote of 97 to zero. Ninety-
seven Democrats and Republicans joined together to pass a meaningful 
bill to provide for the security of Americans, for their retirement and 
investment in corporations.
  We should be here voting on that bill tonight. Tonight, we should be 
sitting here, Republicans and Democrats, passing that legislation which 
had overwhelming bipartisan support in the other Chamber, but we are 
not. And why are we not doing that work for the American people 
tonight? Well, the reason is this, and it is sad to say, but the 
leadership in this House in the majority party has made a conscious 
decision to drag their feet; has made a conscious decision to be 
passive rather than active; has made a conscious decision to answer the 
needs of some special interests rather than the American investors who 
are losing their shirts in the last few days in the stock market and in 
their retirement funds, which are rapidly disappearing.
  The sad fact is that we have some very commonsense things that we 
need to do to make sure that there is a fiscal security apparatus in 
our corporations so that people cannot pull the wool over the eyes of 
investors, defraud investors, and falsify their books. Unfortunately, 
the majority party refuses to adopt those measures.

  Today, on this floor, we had a motion that my party proposed that 
would require some very commonsense measures so that investors would 
have greater confidence; measures to give whistleblowers protection, 
these whistleblowers who have blown the whistle on corporate misdeeds, 
to make sure they have protection. That was rejected by the majority 
party.
  We had a proposal to require records to be kept for a decent interval 
so we could figure out what had happened and find the trail of fraud in 
these cases. That was rejected by the other party.
  We had a provision that would give investors who had been damaged 
greater leeway, a greater period of time to seek redress if they had 
been hurt by corporate fraud. That was rejected by the majority party.
  These are things we could have done today. For the last 2 months, it 
has been a common litany here that we have proposed ideas and we have 
had to drag the majority party kicking and screaming to get 
consideration of these issues. It is really sad, because I have a lot 
of friends on the other side of the aisle who, unfortunately, are not 
being given a chance to vote on these commonsense measures.
  Now, let me mention what the majority party has been doing in the 
last week. During the last week, when the economy has been in a crisis 
of consumer confidence and investor confidence in the last week, on 
July 12, just a few days ago, the leadership of the Committee on Energy 
and Commerce in the majority party, in response to this, what did they 
do? Well, they wrote a letter to the Public Broadcasting Service, PBS. 
In the midst of this economic crisis, the leaders of this Chamber's 
Committee on Energy and Commerce wrote a letter to PBS. And you know 
what they wrote about? They were complaining that Sesame Street program 
was going to introduce a muppet character that was HIV-positive.
  They were so concerned about this that they wrote a letter to PBS to 
stop this heinous introduction of this muppet character. Well, 
Americans want to know the answer to this question tonight: If the 
Republican Party in this House is willing to take on Sesame Street, why 
are they not willing to take on Wall Street? If the Republican Party is 
willing to take on the Cookie Monster, why are they not willing to take 
on these moral monsters who are defrauding American investors and 
taking away people's entire retirement income in some cases?
  This is a time for a bipartisan response to an economic crisis that 
does not just give Americans weak tea. Yes, the majority party is going 
to have to stand up against some of the special interests who have been 
so prevalent in this Chamber in the last decade. Yes, they are going to 
have to do it. But we need them to do it. We need them to join us to do 
it.
  Now, we have heard this response that they have made, and they have 
joined with Democrats to do one of the things that needs to be done. 
They have increased with us the jail time that corporate defrauders 
will be exposed to. And that is a good thing. It is necessary. It is 
probably not adequate, because I would support mandatory jail time. 
Because, unfortunately, a lot of

[[Page H4870]]

white collar criminals spend too little time in these country club 
prisons. We should have mandatory jail term. But, nonetheless, we have 
joined in a bipartisan way to increase the jail time.
  Unfortunately, some Members on the other side of the aisle have said 
that is enough; our job is done. But that is not enough. If we draw a 
metaphor to our airline security system, when we had this terrorist 
threat against airlines, we did not say our job was done as soon as we 
increased jail time for terrorists. Because that is not enough. We have 
to draw a security ring around airplanes to make sure terrorists do not 
put bombs in the checked baggage of our airplanes, do not sneak weapons 
onto our airplanes. We need to be proactive, rather than just coming 
after the crime and sanctioning people with jail.
  So it is not enough for the majority party to simply say we will 
increase jail times and go home. That is not enough. What we need to do 
is to assure that we have watchdogs watching corporate behavior to make 
sure investors are not defrauded. Now, what does that mean? Well, let 
me suggest some of the commonsense proposals that were adopted 97 to 0 
in the other Chamber and have the overwhelming support of Democrats in 
this House. Let me mention a few.
  One, a segregation, to make sure that auditors do not have conflicts 
of interest. We depend on auditors to act as referees or umpires, to 
make sure there are no fouls. But right now those auditors can have 
these huge conflicts of interest where they have these giant contracts 
with the companies they are supposed to be auditing, and we want to end 
that practice. We want auditors to be real meaningful cops on the beat. 
The majority party refuses to accept that. That is most unfortunate. We 
need to get that security ring up and running.
  Second, we need CEOs to verify their financial statements. We need 
the people at the top, the captain of the ship, the one who is 
ultimately responsible for the corporation to sign their John Hancock 
to verify the financial accounting. If we do not do that, then nobody 
is in charge. And it is about time to adopt that proposal.
  Third, we have to have an independent accountancy board to make sure 
that the rules of auditing are workable, tough, and enforceable. 
Unfortunately, right now, we have learned that the accounting rules 
have allowed tremendous creative accounting to take place. Creativity 
is something we need in artists, not in accountants and auditors. We 
need to have an independent board to establish the rules of how these 
audits are conducted, and we do not have that right now. Americans do 
not have that right now. The profession essentially writes its own 
rules, and that has been a recipe for disaster.
  Now, in the other Chamber, on a 97 to 0 vote, that was adopted, and 
we have proposed this on our side of the aisle. But tonight, as 
people's retirements are disappearing all across America, the majority 
party refuses to allow us to have a vote on this House floor to 
implement that commonsense measure. And I respect people on the other 
side of the aisle. I have some great friends on the other side of the 
aisle. But it is wrong not to allow this House to have a vote on those 
commonsense measures, because ultimately America needs people who will 
stand up for those investors against fraud.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope tomorrow that when we convene we will have people 
in the majority party who will join us on a bipartisan basis to get 
this job done, and finally convince the majority party if they are 
going to be willing to stand up to Sesame Street, join us in standing 
up to the shenanigans on Wall Street and get this job for the American 
people.

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