[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12282]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   OMNIBUS RESTORATION AND REFORM ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, we find ourselves in a 
dilemma, and I would hope that the dilemma would cause us to recognize 
that all of us who are responsible for governance and are responsible 
for the leadership that is important in corporate responsibility cannot 
take on any labels. I will say that the importance of what we are doing 
should not have a label of Republicans or Democrats, but clearly, the 
label should be that Congress has not acted.
  We simply have not done the job. I am not sure if this has anything 
to do with big government or little government. I would say that it has 
a lot to do with congressional abdication of their responsibilities and 
agencies not doing their jobs and regulations not being strong enough, 
and that is, of course, the problem of corporate nonresponsibility.
  It is urgent that this Congress acts now. I happen to represent Enron 
Corporation who is now at this point trying to rebuild itself and 
remake itself, and I have always said that I wish them well, because I 
want a strong business doing the business that it was designed to do 
and providing jobs for the 18th Congressional District. At the same 
time, we cannot ignore the fact that we have a circumstance where there 
is a crumbling of investor integrity and investor confidence in our 
system.
  Whether it is Enron that fired 4,000 employees 24 hours after they 
filed for bankruptcy, while 2 days before they gave $105 million in 
retention bonuses to past leadership of that particular corporation, 
and I recognize that trials and investigations are still going on and 
that is appropriate, but we do know the facts. That almost 5,000 
employees were laid off with no savings, minimal severance pay, left to 
their own devices and much of that was without any device. Pensioners 
losing their life savings. A constituent of mine, a small investor, a 
grandmother, said I lost $150,000, a lot of money for someone who may 
be new to the marketplace.
  WorldCom, and I hold up a certificate of stock ownership, maybe, Mr. 
Speaker, this is not exactly a certificate of stock ownership, but it 
reflects that WorldCom sold just a few weeks ago for $64 per share and 
just recently it sold for 7 cents a share, and it was disenrolled or D-
enrolled on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
  It is time now, Mr. Speaker, for much action to occur, and this week 
I will be looking forward to introducing the Omnibus Restoration and 
Reform Act of 2002, dealing with trying to get the focus of not only 
the Congress but of the American people on one legislative initiative 
that includes any number of fixes.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope that we will pass 25 bills dealing with corporate 
reform. I would hope that this omnibus bill will just signal that the 
Congress needs to move. It needs to move because insider trading is 
still going on.
  Pharmaceuticals, oil companies, communications companies, we already 
know that the communications industry has lost more than 165,000 jobs, 
second only, I understand, to the auto industry.
  What has to be done? I agree with the leader of the other body and 
the leader of this body that we must have an investor bill of rights, 
and I join them in their announcement today and applaud them for their 
leadership.
  I agree with the announcements being made in Wall Street today that 
we need a stronger SEC.

                              {time}  1730

  But after we do all of this, we must have follow-through. The 
Investor Bill of Rights must have the opportunity to pass, and the 
bill, or any bills that the President is talking of, must be able to 
pass.
  Mr. Speaker, let me simply say in closing that we need an omnibus 
corporate reform restoration act to restore the faith of those who 
invest in our capitalistic system, oversight of the board of directors, 
and to make criminal the actions of those CEOs who would do criminal 
acts at the head of their companies.
  I hope we will act soon. Congress needs to act soon and the President 
needs to sign a bill to strengthen our corporate structure.

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