[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12455]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Capito). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, the strength of our United States economy 
is built on the honesty, integrity and transparency of our financial 
institutions. But right now the confidence of the American public and 
international investors is truly shaken.
  We must restore confidence in our economy before it is rocked any 
further so we can continue to attract capital investment for the future 
health and prosperity of our economic system. The spate of deregulation 
over recent years has left us with a system that benefits the powerful 
and the wealthy above all others. We cannot allow this to continue.
  Weakened Federal regulation of accounting practices has allowed 
corporate greed to run rampant and has led to failure of some of our 
very largest corporations and businesses. Enron, Global Crossing, Owens 
Corning, ImClone, Merrill Lynch, Arthur Andersen, Tyco, WorldCom, the 
list grows every single day. When these big businesses fail, thousands 
of employees lose their jobs and pensions while, undeservedly, many of 
the corporate executives become rich. They become not only 
millionaires, they become billionaires. These captains of industry do 
not stay with the sinking ship. They jump off first and with all the 
treasures.
  This is not a simple problem about a few bad apples. The problems are 
systemic, and the accounting practices of America must be changed so we 
will be able to restore our economic health. We must support 
legislation like that in Senator Sarbanes' bill, legislation that will 
provide real corporate responsibility. His bill calls for a strong, 
independent board to oversee the auditing of public companies, assures 
the independence of auditors, and provides for reform that will protect 
investors.
  And in the House we must support the gentleman from New York's (Mr. 
LaFalce) bill, H.R. 4083, the Corporate Responsibility Act of the Year 
2002. His bill deals directly with the conduct of company officers and 
restores corporate credibility. Business executives must aspire to a 
higher business ethic because investors and employees are entrusting 
them with, oftentimes, their entire life savings; and business 
executives who break the rules must be punished.
  The first step in restoring our Nation's confidence would be for the 
President, the President himself, to release records of the SEC's 1992 
investigation of his trading in Harken Energy shares. In fact, we can 
talk about markets, economies, capital, and financial systems until we 
are blue in the face, but what is important to remember is that when a 
corporation fails, workers lose their jobs, families hit hard times, 
and children suffer.
  The American economy is built on confidence and an expectation of 
fairness. If one works hard and plays by the rules, they deserve to 
share in a secure future. Unregulated business practices have allowed 
private-sector titans to act irresponsibly, and personal gain has 
tarnished the reputation of the American market as well as the 
confidence in our economy.
  There must be zero tolerance for corporate corruption.

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