[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14796]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 ENRON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, just before the July 4 recess, the 
Democrats on our side of the aisle attempted to offer an amendment to 
force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, chaired by Pat Wood of 
Texas, appointed by George Bush of Texas, from continuing to conceal 
documents regarding Enron of Texas and the scandal and the fraud of 
which Enron has perpetrated upon the people of the Western United 
States, costing us tens of billions of dollars, a huge runup in our 
electricity costs, something that is continuing to hurt the economy of 
Oregon, Washington, and California. All the businesses depended upon 
energy, small businesses and residential consumers.
  The Republicans would not allow that amendment to be debated on the 
floor of the House because of its kind of embarrassing links between 
Enron and the Bush administration and the fraud that was perpetrated on 
the Western United States.
  Ken Lay, as the chief executive of Enron, was the mastermind of this 
fraud. He bilked billions of dollars from millions of people for his 
own personal profit and that of his executives, and he was finally 
today brought to justice. We finally saw him in handcuffs on 
television, and hopefully he will have a long stay in jail, and 
hopefully he will also have to work during that stay and not just get 
free room and board, because he has already extracted enough cost from 
hard-working Americans.
  When we asked for a meeting with Vice President Cheney during the 
huge runup in prices in the Western United States, we got together; he 
got together with the Northwest delegation. And he, in response to 
concerns I raised, said that I was really stupid, and I just did not 
understand that this had nothing to do with fraud, abuse, or market 
manipulation. This was all about market forces. I just did not 
understand markets and that Enron was a leader in markets, and I just 
did not understand markets, and unless we build one 500-megawatt plant 
every week for the next 15 years, and this is Vice President Cheney, 
the $4,000 megawatt prices, about 100 times normal, would continue 
forever.
  Of course, then we appealed to the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission, seeing that the Vice President's mind was slightly closed 
on the matter. And the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, chaired by 
Pat Wood of Texas, with a couple of other appointees chosen by Ken Lay 
of Texas, of Enron, refused to look into it. Finally, after additional 
pressure was raised, they said they would look into it. Then they said, 
no, it is just market forces. There is no market manipulation.
  Then a strange thing happened. The Senate changed hands. When the 
Senator from Vermont changed to Independent, and the Democrats took 
over the Senate, and Diane Feinstein from California threatened to hold 
hearings on what was going on in the Western energy market, suddenly 
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reviewed its records and 
found, lo and behold, there was a scandal.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will refrain from referencing 
individual Senators.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, certainly. I would not want to mention 
any individual Senators.
  So the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission then suddenly said, oh, 
no, there is something wrong here. It is a little bit weird that prices 
are up to 100 times normal. And they reimposed the price caps, which we 
had during the Clinton administration.
  Now we have the tapes of the Enron Corporation, and Ken Lay says he 
did nothing wrong. The tapes are incredible. The marketers talk about 
shutting off plants to drive up prices. They talk about gouging Grandma 
Milly. They talk about getting rid of the Clinton administration, price 
caps are gone, and Ken Lay is going to run things in this country, and, 
by God, they are going to make a lot of money. And they did for a while 
at tremendous pain and cost to the Western United States, all while the 
Bush administration looked the other way.
  Pat Wood of Texas is still in charge of the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission. The Bush administration is continuing to push for more 
deregulation. They think the only thing that Enron did wrong and the 
only thing wrong with deregulation is that Enron got caught, because 
they were having a wonderful time making a bunch of money.
  Now it comes that Ken Lay of Texas is the largest single, individual, 
lifetime contributor to George Bush of Texas, the President of the 
United States, and he has contributed over his life $139,500 to 
President Bush. His company contributed $625,000 to President Bush.
  I would call upon the President to return these ill-gotten gains, the 
money that Ken Lay stole from Grandma Milly and others in the Western 
United States, and to show that he understands and has compassion. He 
could contribute the money to low-income energy funds in the Western 
United States to help Grandma Milly, who was taken to the cleaners by 
Ken Lay of Texas, of Enron, Mr. Bush's best friend, ``Ken Boy'' Lay.

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