[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 3]
[EX]
[Page 3553]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   CLASS ACTION FAIRNESS ACT OF 2002

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                               speech of

                          HON. EARL BLUMENAUER

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 13, 2002

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2341) to 
     amend the procedures that apply to consideration of 
     interstate class actions to assure fairer outcomes for class 
     members and defendants, to outlaw certain practices that 
     provide inadequate settlements for class members, to assure 
     that attorneys do not receive a disproportionate amount of 
     settlements at the expense of class members, to provide for 
     clearer and simpler information in class action settlement 
     notices, to assure prompt consideration of interstate class 
     actions, to amend title 28, United States Code, to allow the 
     application of the principles of Federal diversity 
     jurisdiction to interstate class actions, and for other 
     purposes.

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 
2341, the Class Action Fairness Act of 2001. This legislation would 
make it more difficult for injured consumers to seek relief from 
corporate abuses. This is not the type of legislation that we in 
Congress should be supporting in the wake of the Enron debacle.
  I would also like to state my position on some of the amendments 
being offered on H.R. 2341. Several of the amendments are directly 
attributable to many of the alleged disgraceful, if not illegal, acts 
performed by a few major corporations in the past couple of years. 
These acts include records being sealed, even though public health and 
safety were at stake, and document shredding. Despite the outrage that 
some corporate behavior has created for me and the American public, 
some proposed amendments were not well-defined to deal with this 
illegal conduct. My ``nay'' votes on certain amendments reflect this 
concern, however I condemn the corporate behavior that prompted these 
proposals.

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