[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12576]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              WORKING TOGETHER TO STOP ACCOUNTING SCANDALS

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the stock market took its sharpest 
dive since last fall. Some of the major indexes are lower than they 
have been since 1998.
  The reason, Mr. Speaker, is not that the economy is not strong. GDP 
grew at a rate of 6.1 percent last quarter. The reason is that a 
handful of dishonest executives got greedy during the heady days of the 
nineties. They began to lie and deceive in order to make it look like 
their companies were making more money than they actually were. By 
lying, they kept their stock prices up and made themselves rich.
  Even though only a few companies were involved, investor confidence 
has suffered severely. The President has a tough and sensible plan to 
punish the wrongdoers and make sure this does not happen again.
  The House has already acted on parts of the President's plan. There 
is only one thing standing in the way of fixing the problem: Politics, 
Mr. Speaker. Our friends on the other side of the aisle, especially in 
the other body, are intent on trying to blame this President and 
Republicans for what happened on their President's watch.
  This is not about blame, Mr. Speaker. It is about fixing a problem. 
Just once we ought to put politics aside and get the job done.

                          ____________________