Dana Rohrabacher: “today I am submitting to Congress what I believe will be an historic piece of legislation. It is entitled The Employee…”

“today I am submitting to Congress what I believe will be an historic piece of legislation. It is entitled The Employee Ownership Act of 1999. This legislation, I predict, will be as significant to the American people as the homeowner's mortgage deduction, which has ensured the widespread ownership of homes throughout the United States of America. In fact, 60 percent of the American people own their own homes, and this can be traced to the fact that we have written our tax law in a way that encourages widespread ownership of housing and homes in the United States. The goal of my bill is that after 10 years, 30 percent of all of America's major corporations will be owned and controlled by their own employees. Now, I know that sounds a bit radical. That sounds like a big change, but we have had a great deal of employee ownership expansion over these last 20 years. This bill, under the guise of ESOPS, Employee Stock Ownership Plans, what I am proposing is an ESOP-plus-plus idea that would increase employee ownership throughout this country. This bill will bring about a new category of American business, the Employee Owned and Controlled Corporation, EOCC. These new corporate structures would be modeled somewhat after United Airlines. As we know, the employees at United Airlines bought a controlling interest in their own corporation and now make many of the decisions that affect United Airlines and thus affect the employees.”