Political Quotes

“the body has just heard a lot of information. It was probably about equally divided between information that is not relevant to the legislation before us and misinformation about the legislation. It is very hard in 5 minutes to rebut all of that. First, let me say that this has nothing to do with WorldCom, Enron, and Quest. Those companies are not in the rent-to-own industry, so any confusion, I hope we dispel that right up front. What the gentlewoman is talking about is the rent-to-own industry. It is the largest industry in America that is not regulated. The States are pretty much divided: One-third of them have no regulation, one-third of them have weak-to-moderate regulation, and one third of them have strong regulation. What this legislation does, it leaves in place all consumer protection legislation at the State level, all. It leaves all those laws passed by the State legislature, all, and I will explain that, all of them in place. It simply has a floor. It requires certain things. If the State has a stronger provision, that is applicable. If the State has a weaker provision, the Federal standard applies. Today, over 40 States do not require that they put a price tag on a rent-to-own item. Every consumer group has condemned this. This legislation will require a price tag so the consumer knows what he is paying, what it is costing him.”