[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16474]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 DEMOCRATS CONTINUE TO WORK TO BRING REAL ACCOUNTABILITY TO WASHINGTON

  (Mr. HODES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HODES. Mr. Speaker, when Democrats took control of Congress 
earlier this year, we vowed to restore accountability here in 
Washington. Unfortunately, President Bush is stubbornly resistant to 
any changes in the status quo.
  Case in point: Earlier this year we passed the Accountability in 
Contracting Act which cleans up government contracting abuses and no-
bid contracts that companies like Halliburton and KBR have made 
infamous. The bill overwhelmingly passed here in the House, and yet the 
Bush administration says it currently opposes the bill.
  We've all heard about the $100 million compensation packages that 
executives walk away with at the same time their company is laying off 
their employees. So we in Congress passed a corporate accountability 
bill that enhances the accountability of corporate management 
shareholders by allowing a nonbinding vote by shareholders on executive 
compensation plans. But the administration opposes this legislation in 
its current form.
  Mr. Speaker, despite opposition from the President and his party, 
Democrats will continue to serve as a catalyst for change to care about 
ordinary, hardworking Americans and bring real accountability here in 
Washington.

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