[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 153 (Monday, December 16, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2146-E2148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 DR. GEORGE V. IRONS, SR.'S INDUCTION TO THE ALABAMA MEN'S HALL OF FAME

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ROBERT B. ADERHOLT

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, December 16, 2002

  Mr. ADERHOLT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize one of Alabama's 
greatest native sons--Dr. George Vernon Irons, Sr.
  Dr. Irons recently received Alabama's highest posthumous honor--
induction into the Alabama Men's Hall of Fame in Birmingham. The 
Alabama Men's Hall of Fame was created by the Alabama legislature in 
1987. Its selection board is comprised of members from all seven 
congressional districts, the Governor, director of archives and history 
and the President of Samford University.
  Past inductees include America's most distinguished leaders: Wernher 
Von Braun, famed scientist who developed the rocketry to blast American 
astronauts to the Moon and return safely--a first in human history; 
George Washington Carver, botanist who mutated plants to give the south 
vital food sources; and James A. ``Brother'' Bryan, humanitarian, who 
gave sacrificially to fellow Alabamians during its severest economic 
times.
  Its most recent inductee, Dr. Irons, was distinguished professor of 
history and political science, Samford University for a near half 
century and one of the Nation's greatest athletes. Born in the 
``Shadows of Gaineswood'' in Demopolis, Alabama in 1902, a century 
later, he is still breaking records. Dr. Irons is the only athlete 
inducted by the Alabama Men's Hall of Fame--the only Samford University 
Professor--and the only individual inducted by both the Alabama Men's 
Hall of Fame and the prestigious Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
  While at the University of Alabama, he was first spotted by Coach 
Hank Crisp running across the campus--late to class. He promptly put 
him on the track team, where he broke a collegiate record the first 
time he ever pulled on a Crimson Tide uniform. Here's how a southern 
Governor described Bama's ``Chariot of Fire:''
  ``Long before Bama had been to its first bowl game, before legendary 
Coach Paul Bear Bryant had won a game, Captain George Irons blazed a 
crimson streak across southern skies establishing an athletic 
tradition, smashing records in distance events as `Ironsides' and the 
`Knight of the Cinder Path.' ''
  As road racing champion (distance events begun at halftime of major 
football games and finishing as the halftime show--after a hill and 
dale course of about 4 miles), Bama's superstar was the ``best there 
ever was.'' Legendary Crimson Tide coach Wallace Wade (three time Rose 
Bowl winner) said Irons was: ``The greatest distance runner of his 
era.''
  He is the only Crimson Tide track man--the only distance man ever 
inducted by the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame--rare honors he may hold 
forever. Remarkably, some of his records still stand--nearly a century 
later.
  Pretty swift in the classroom too, Irons was Phi Beta Kappa honor 
graduate, Rhodes scholar nominee, earning his doctorate at Duke 
University. Dr. George Denny, president of the University of Alabama, 
appointed him assistant to the faculty beginning his ``longest run'' in 
higher education. He later joined Howard College (now Samford 
University) in 1933. He also distinguished himself in World War II, 
rising to the rank of colonel, serving 33 years active and reserve 
duty--a Samford record.
  Dr. Irons received Freedom Foundation's (Valley Forge, Pennsylvania), 
George Washington Medal of Honor for his speech in 1962 entitled: 
``Freedom, America's Weapon of Might.'' It was broadcast worldwide on 
the U.S. Armed Forces Network. Irons was the first southerner to win 
this prestigious national award.
  Mr. Speaker, Dr. Irons was the only man elected by the Alabama Men's 
Hall of Fame from the 20th century. J. Lamar Monroe Curry, former 
Member of the United States Congress and Ambassador to Spain, was 
elected for the 19th century. To be considered, nominees must have 
strong connections to our State and have made a national or 
international impact in his profession.
  Dr. Irons taught seventeen students who became university 
presidents--a record in American education. His innovations in 
curriculum became a model for higher education across the South and 
Nation. A former student wrote: ``Dr. Irons was more than a teacher, he 
was an architect of the human mind. When he looked out to teach a 
class, he did not see simply students--he saw the mirror image of 
God.''
  His influence continues through the many students who were inspired 
by his life. It's no surprise his student roster included those who 
became captains of industry, Supreme Court Justices, Governors, law 
school deans and America's leaders.
  The induction ceremony was held at the club in Birmingham by the 
Committee of 100 Women (leaders of Alabama's civic and social 
communities) and the Alabama Men's Hall of Fame. Dr. Irons' son, 
Mountain Brook attorney, William L. Irons, gave a moving speech 
highlighting his father's contributions to Alabama and the American 
Nation. His bust was unveiled by Dr. Irons' great grandson, Dylan 
Alexander Irons of Charlotte, North Carolina.
  Inductees' busts are housed in the Alabama Men's Hall of Fame located 
in the Harwell G. Davis Library of Samford University. As inductee of 
both of Alabama's most prestigious halls of fame, Dr. Irons has placed 
a footprint where no man or woman has trod and should inspire future 
Alabamians.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that the article in the University of Alabama 
Alumni Magazine, entitled: ``Knight of the Cinder Path,'' be included 
in the Congressional Record for America to share the achievements of 
this great American who served his university as distinguished educator 
a near half century, his country in war and peace for a third of the 
20th century and his alma mater, the University of Alabama, as record 
breaking champion athlete and honor graduate.

[[Page E2147]]

                                  SEC

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN J. LaFALCE

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, December 16, 2002

  Mr. LaFALCE. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to submit to the 
Congressional Record the important work that has been done at the 
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the last year under 
Chairman Harvey Pitt. While there has been much turmoil and controversy 
over the last year, we should recognize and honor the many very real 
and important accomplishments of the Commission and its staff during 
this period. From the incredible efforts of Chairman Pitt and 
Commission staff to help the securities markets recover from the 
devastation of September 11, 2001, to the unprecedented number of 
enforcement cases and complex financial fraud investigations undertaken 
in the last year, Chairman Pitt and the Commission have much of which 
to be proud.

                          SEC Accomplishments


                            Fiscal Year 2002

       The 2002 Fiscal Year has been challenging for the markets 
     and investors alike. This past year included not only the 
     continued effects of the tragedies of September 11, 2001, but 
     also the significant corporate scandals that began with 
     Enron. Fiscal Year 2002 represented a continuation of the 
     SEC's work on important issues such as market structure, 
     regulatory reform for mutual funds, and improved regulation 
     of research analyst conflicts. In the past year, the SEC has 
     taken unprecedented, aggressive steps to investigate possible 
     wrongdoing, propose tough new regulations, and fully 
     implement the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

                       Overall agency highlights

       Implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act--The Commission 
     has moved aggressively to implement provisions of the 
     landmark legislation signed into law on July 30, 2002, to 
     reform the accounting industry and restore the integrity of 
     the financial reporting system. Since the bill was signed 
     into law, the Commission has undertaken ten major 
     rulemakings, while making significant progress on the seven 
     studies required by the legislation.
       Response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks--The 
     Commission actively responded to the events of September 11. 
     During the attacks, the New York offices of the SEC were 
     destroyed, and the Commission worked quickly to reestablish 
     operations. The Commission continues to work with other U.S. 
     financial regulators--the Federal Reserve Board, the Office 
     of the Comptroller of the Currency and the New York State 
     Banking Department--on a project to strengthen the 
     operational resilience of the financial sector. The 
     Commission has also taken numerous steps to implement the 
     Patriot Act to deter international money laundering and 
     combat terrorist financing.
       SEC, NY Attorney General, NYSF, NASD, NASAA Agreement on 
     Reforming Wall Street Practices--The Commission, the New York 
     State Attorney General's Office, the NYSE, the NASD and the 
     North American Securities Administrators Association 
     announced a joint effort to bring to a speedy and coordinated 
     conclusion the various investigations concerning analyst 
     research and IPO allocations. (October 3, 2002)
       Review of Initial Public Offering Process--The SEC asked 
     the National Association of Securities Dealers and the New 
     York Stock Exchange to review the initial public offering 
     (IPO) process, including IPO allocation practices and the 
     roles of issuers and underwriters in the price setting and 
     offering process. (August 22, 2002)

                        Enforcement initiatives

       In the past year the Enforcement Division of the SEC has 
     taken a record 598 actions, a 24% increase over 2001, and a 
     19% increase over 2000. (See ``Record of Enforcement'' 
     below.)
       This year's actions include the following significant 
     cases:
       Charged former Enron CFO, Andrew Fastow with fraud. 
     (October 2, 2002)
       Settled fraud charges against Michael Kopper, a former 
     high-ranking Enron official. (August 21, 2002)
       Charged three former senior executives of Homestore Inc. 
     with perpetrating an extensive scheme to fraudulently inflate 
     Homestore's advertising revenues by arranging fraudulent 
     ``round-trip'' transactions. The defendants agreed to return 
     ill-gotten gains of approximately $4.6 million to be paid to 
     the benefit of shareholders, under the Fair Funds provision 
     of the recently enacted Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. 
     (September 25, 2002)
       Settled with Dynegy for securities fraud charges involving 
     Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) and round-trip energy trades. 
     (September 24, 2002)
       Charged three former top Tyco International executives, 
     including CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski, with failing to disclose 
     multi-million dollar low interest and interest-free loans 
     from the company, and in some cases, never repaid. They were 
     also charged with selling shares of Tyco stock valued at 
     millions of dollars while their self-dealing remained 
     undisclosed. (September 12, 2002)
       Charged Adelphia and Rigas family with massive financial 
     fraud. (July 24, 2002)
       Filed fraud charges against WorldCom within 24 hours of the 
     company's revelation of its massive accounting problems. 
     (June 26, 2002)
       Charged former Rite Aid senior management with fraud in 
     connection with its financial disclosures. (June 21, 2002)
       Settled SEC enforcement action for financial fraud with 
     Xerox, assessing a $10 million penalty, the largest ever 
     penalty against a public company for financial fraud. (April 
     11, 2002)
       Filed a settled action against Credit Suisse First Boston 
     for IPO allocation practices that violated NASD rules. CSFB 
     agreed to pay $100 million in penalties and disgorgement. 
     (January 22, 2002)
       Brought a settled administrative action charging Trump 
     Hotels with fraud in the first enforcement action based on 
     misleading ``pro forma financials.'' (January 16, 2002)
       Brought a series of significant settled enforcement actions 
     alleging violations of the auditor independence rules against 
     Price WaterhouseCoopers, Moret Ernst & Young Accountants and 
     KPMG. (July 17, 2002; June 27, 2002; January 14, 2002)

            Corporate disclosure and accounting initiatives

       Pro Forma Financial Statements--The Commission issued 
     cautionary advice related to ``pro forma'' financial 
     information, or information that is not prepared using 
     Generally Accepted Accounting Principles required for 
     financial statements filed with the SEC, and that may be 
     confusing or misleading. The Commission issued an ``Investor 
     Alert'' that describes how ``pro forma financials should be 
     analyzed, including a reminder that they should be viewed 
     with appropriate and healthy skepticism.'' (December 4, 2001)
       Monitoring Annual Reports of Fortune 500 Companies--The 
     Commission monitored the annual reports of all Fortune 500 
     Companies to identify information that may be unclear or 
     conflict with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or SEC 
     rules. (December 21, 2001)
       Disclosure of Equity Compensation Plan Information--Adopted 
     rule amendments designed to enhance disclosure about equity 
     compensation plans, including stock options. (December 21, 
     2001)
       Disclosure Requirements for Public Companies--Called for 
     corporate disclosure of the impact of off-balance sheet 
     arrangements and other obligations regarding liquidity and 
     capital resources. (January 22, 2002)
       Disclosure of Certain Management Transactions--Proposed 
     amendments responding to investors' need for timely 
     disclosure of transactions and other arrangements between 
     companies and their executive officers and directors, (April 
     12, 2002--later included in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
       Acceleration of Periodic Report Filing Dates--Proposed 
     (April 12, 2002) and adopted (August 17, 2002) acceleration 
     of the filing of quarterly and annual reports to be phased in 
     over three years. These rules require that annual reports be 
     filed within 60 days of the close of the fiscal year and 
     quarterly reports be filed within 35 days of each quarter's 
     end.
       Mandated EDGAR Filing for Foreign Issuers--Adopted rule 
     amendments to require foreign private issuers and foreign 
     governments to file their securities documents electronically 
     through the EDGAR system. (May 8, 2002)
       Critical Accounting Polices--Proposed amendments to enhance 
     investors' understanding of the application of companies' 
     critical accounting polices. (May 10, 2002)
       Additional Current Disclosure Requirements and acceleration 
     of Filing Date--To provide investors with up-to-date 
     information, proposed additional items and events that must 
     be reported on Form 8-K within two business days of the 
     action. (June 17, 2002)
       Certification of Disclosure in Companies' Quarterly and 
     Annual Reports--To increase the accountability of senior 
     company officers, proposed rules to require certification of 
     a company's reports by the CEO and CFO. (June 17, 2002--later 
     included in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
       SEC Order to Largest Publicly Traded Companies--Ordered the 
     947 largest publicly traded companies to certify the accuracy 
     and completeness of their filings. (June 27, 2002)
       SRO Listing Standards on Corporate Governance--In response 
     to the SEC's request in February, the NYSE and Nasdaq have 
     come forward with proposals that will produce the most 
     substantial corporate governance and listing standards reform 
     in decades.

                     Market regulation initiatives

       Commodities Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) Rulemakings--
     Conducted extensive rulemaking, much of it jointly with the 
     Commodities Futures Trading Commission, to permit for the 
     first time trading in security futures products, including 
     single stock futures.
       Analyst Conflicts of Interest--Approved NASD and NYSE rules 
     that address potential conflicts of interest by research 
     analysts. Launched a thorough examination of analyst 
     conflicts of interest. Proposed Regulation AC, requiring 
     research analysts to certify the truthfulness of their views 
     in research reports and public appearances and disclose 
     whether they have received any compensation related to the 
     specific recommendation provided in those reports and 
     appearances.
       Rating Agencies--Launched a thorough examination of the 
     role of rating agencies in the U.S. securities markets.
       Significant Progress on Options Market Linkage--Approved an 
     amendment to the

[[Page E2148]]

     Linkage Plan filed by the options exchanges that, among other 
     things, requires the intermarket linkage to be fully 
     implemented no later than April 30, 2003. The intermarket 
     linkage in an important step in improving options customers' 
     ability to receive the best prices available. (May 29, 2002)

                   Investment management initiatives

       Investment Adviser Public Disclosure--Launched website 
     which provides investors a valuable tool to help compare the 
     business practices, services and fees of investment advisers 
     online, free of charge. The website also contains 
     disciplinary information regarding advisers. (September 25, 
     2001)
       Mutual Fund Advertising Proposal--Proposed amendments to 
     modernize the mutual fund advertising rules. (May 14, 2002)
       Hedge Funds Investigation--Launched a formal fact-finding 
     investigation to provide the Commission with a better 
     understanding of the issues currently affecting private 
     investment funds, including Hedge Funds. (May 29, 2002)
       Disclosure of Proxy Voting by Mutual Funds and Investment 
     Advisers--Proposed amendments that would require mutual funds 
     and other registered management investment companies to file 
     with the Commission, and make available to shareholders, 
     their proxy voting records relating to portfolio securities 
     and disclose the policies and procedures they use to 
     determine how to vote proxies. The proposal would require 
     advisers to adopt proxy voting policies, to disclose these 
     policies to clients and how clients can obtain information on 
     how the adviser has voted on the proxies. (September 19, 
     2002)
       Fixed Income Exchange-Traded Funds--Approved the first 
     exchange-trade funds based on fixed income indices, giving 
     investors another option to invest in a basket of fixed 
     income securities, providing lower expenses and intra-day 
     pricing.

             Investor education and assistance initiatives

       Fake ``Scam'' Site Initiative--Launched three fake ``scam'' 
     Web sites that warn investors about fraud before they lose 
     their money. http://www.mcwhortle.com. (January 20, 2002)
       Roundtables and Investor Summit--Held three Roundtables on 
     Accounting and Auditing: New York (March 4, 2002), 
     Washington, DC (March 6, 2002) and Chicago (April 4, 2002) 
     and held the first-ever Investor Summit. (May 10, 2002)
       Investor Assistance--Provided individual responses to over 
     82,000 complaints and questions from investors. Additionally, 
     the interactive ``Fast Answers'' database on the SEC's Web 
     site provided instant answers to nearly 206,000 questions 
     from the public.

      U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION RECORD OF ENFORCEMENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                             FY 2000   FY 2001   FY 2002
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Enforcement actions filed...........       503       484       598
Financial fraud and issuer reporting             103       112       163
 actions filed............................
Officer and director bars sought (in all          38        51       126
 categories of cases).....................
Temporary restraining orders filed (in all        33        31        48
 categories of cases).....................
Asset freezes (in all categories of cases)        56        43        63
Trading suspensions.......................        11         2        11
Subpoena enforcement proceedings..........         8        15        19
Disgorgement ordered (in millions) \1\....      $463      $530    $1,328
Penalties ordered (in millions) \1\.......     $43.7     $56.1    $116.4
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Includes amounts disbursed to the NASD as part of the Credit Suisse
  First Boston settlement.

  

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