Ed Markey: “I can even imagine a situation where we draft something that allows for even those kinds of statements to be made. But…”

“I can even imagine a situation where we draft something that allows for even those kinds of statements to be made. But of course we would have to put some kind of skull and crossbones around it and inside of the statement so we differentiated it from the facts ma'am, nothing but the facts in terms of what the actual condition of the company is. So this is, in my opinion, a very dangerous amendment. We can change the forward-looking statement regulations of this country. I do not have any problem with doing that and I think a lot of CEO's in this country need some relief, and I think we can work with them to do it. But the way this is drafted right now, the single worst, most unscrupulous business executives in this country will be free to make any kind of misstatements they want and by just making this very simple disclaimer that the estimates may not be realized, they are off the hook. And they will hire the fanciest law firms in America to draft a 30-page statement with this one line in it and it is caveat emptor out in the marketplace, running completely contrary to our long history of disclosure and protection for investors. So this is not a safe harbor, this is a safe ocean of fraud, and the SEC will have to wage a two-ocean struggle with limited resources to keep track of all of the fraud and misrepresentation that will be possible. I sincerely hope that the Members would reject this amendment.”