TJ Cox: “I agree with the gentleman's understanding of S. 1260's legislative history. I also note that courts correctly treat…”

“I agree with the gentleman's understanding of S. 1260's legislative history. I also note that courts correctly treat so-called post-enactment legislative history as virtually worthless. But to the extent that courts have any interest in what the 105th Congress thinks the 104th Congress did in 1995, I trust they will compare this year's Senate Banking Committee report language with what both Houses ultimately agreed to in this conference committee Managers' Statement. Where the Senate report on S. 1260 states that the 1995 act ``establish[ed] a uniform Federal standard on pleading requirements by adopting the pleading standard adopted by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals'', the more authoritative Managers' Statement states that in 1995 we ``establish[ed] a heightened uniform Federal standard based upon the pleading standard applied by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.'' The House managers insisted on these changes to reaffirm what the conferees said in 1995: We adopted a pleading standard higher than the then-existing Second Circuit standard. Mr. Speaker, once more, Congress is making huge strides toward protecting investors and workers in public companies. I'm pleased that the House will today complete work on S. 1260, the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998.”