TJ Cox: “Mr. Chairman, I listened carefully to the comments of the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Dingell], and I must say it…”

“Mr. Chairman, I listened carefully to the comments of the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Dingell], and I must say it proves the law of the inverse correlation between desperate level and factual content on many occasions. What the gentleman from Michigan may have forgotten is that the bill we are discussing today simply embodies the policy choices that, for decades and decades, have been made by Democrat Congresses and confirmed by our Supreme Court. The pattern of the Federal securities laws is clear. When Congress wanted to impose absolute liability or impose liability for mere negligence, it did so explicitly. What the gentleman may have forgotten is that the securities laws already impose strict and absolute liability on the directors of a company for fraudulent misstatements and omissions. It is not just recklessness, not just negligence, but strict liability and absolute liability for the directors of company under section 11. It is the same thing for the officers of the company.”