Dianne Feinstein: “I rise in support of S. 2673, the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002. Nearly every…”

“I rise in support of S. 2673, the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002. Nearly every day, it seems, the front pages of our newspapers are awash in stories about the latest corporate accounting scandal. Just 3 weeks ago we learned that WorldCom hid $3.8 billion in expenses in the last five quarters alone. And WorldCom is merely the latest member of an increasingly large group of public corporations that have knowingly deceived shareholders, directors, and, in some cases, their own auditors. WorldCom, Enron, Tyco, Global Crossing, Xerox--the list goes on and on. Much attention has been focused on the huge sums that CEOs and other senior executives have extracted from these companies in the form of incentive pay, but even those large sums pale in comparison to the total shareholder value that has been destroyed as a result of these disclosures. At its peak, WorldCom's market capitalization exceeded $190 billion, making it, for a time, the most valuable telecommunications services company in the world. Now, WorldCom shares are effectively worthless.”