[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12577]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, why was President Bush's speech on 
Tuesday so badly received? Why did worker after worker who attended the 
speech just say it was mere politics and not substance? Why did the 
market drop hundreds of points after the President made his speech on 
Tuesday?
  It is because of a lack of confidence in the Bush-Cheney team that it 
will demand accountability from its big contributors on Wall Street and 
its CEO friends; because of the coziness that the Bush-Cheney team have 
with wealthy interest group after wealthy interest group.
  Let me give an example. Three weeks ago, President Bush and House 
Republicans trooped off to a big fund-raiser where the prescription 
drug industry gave $2 million to the Republicans. The next day, on a 
party-line vote on amendment after amendment after amendment, the 
consumer side lost and the drug industry side won.
  The oil industry is writing energy legislation for the Republicans, 
the chemical industry is writing environmental legislation, Wall Street 
is writing Social Security privatization legislation, the insurance 
companies are writing Medicare privatization legislation, and the 
pharmaceutical companies are writing prescription drug legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, it must stop.

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