Barney Frank: “there is a close contest as to which aspect of this bill is more outrageous, its terribly deficient substance or its…”

“there is a close contest as to which aspect of this bill is more outrageous, its terribly deficient substance or its antidemocratic procedure. As to the substance, as the gentleman from Wisconsin just mentioned, this bill continues the Republican position of complete and total hypocrisy with regard to corporate accountability. When the Sarbanes-Oxley bill was signed, the President quite proudly cited this as an example of his concern for increased corporate accountability. A key piece of that bill which the President signed called for an increased appropriation for the Securities and Exchange Commission so it could do the large number of new responsibilities it is given by Sarbanes-Oxley. Consistently since the passage of this bill at every budget opportunity, the Republican majority in this House has refused to make one penny of that available so that none of the additional responsibilities of Sarbanes-Oxley have been funded. This bill continues the pattern of hypocrisy, of having called for and signed into law funding for Sarbanes-Oxley to the SEC and not providing it.”