Political Quotes

“this is a very complicated area of law. I know our colleagues are going to come to the floor and want to know what this is all about. In effect, this amendment would have the impact of creating even further uncertainty in the definition of a class action. It does not provide more certainty; it is less certainty. I think it would upset the very carefully crafted and very balanced definition worked out with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The reason it took us a little time to get this bill to our colleagues was because we took so much time working with the SEC to try and define these areas. What our colleagues are offering is an amendment that would disrupt the definition worked out with the SEC in this area. Clearly, with all due respect, the tremendous amount of expertise in crafting it--I am not going to suggest to my colleagues that we have a perfect definition in the bill. But certainly this one is not perfect either. But if you are going to trust one or the other, it seems to me the one worked out with the Securities and Exchange Commission, I urge my colleagues, makes a lot more sense. Neither of these definitions tracks word for word what is in rule 23. Rule 23--trust me when I tell you this rule 23 goes on for pages, pages. It is one of the more lengthy definitions of class actions that there is. So, we are not tracking that word for word. We are trying to pick up the essence of it. It is tremendously complicated.”