Elizabeth Warren: “I am disappointed but not surprised that there is an objection to this request because although there is bipartisan…”

“I am disappointed but not surprised that there is an objection to this request because although there is bipartisan support for this bill and only one outside group has raised concerns--that group is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful lobbying organization that represents the interests of large corporations. The chamber's concern about this bill demonstrates just how much the interests of these giant corporations that break the law conflict with public interests. In its letter opposing the bill, the Chamber wrote that the bill ``would remove the incentive for investigation targets to settle and force the government to expend more resources to prove its assertions in court.'' Think about that for a second. The chamber's position is that agencies shouldn't disclose basic facts about settlement agreements to the public because if the public were aware of those facts, they would demand more accountability for corporate wrongdoers. The chamber's position boils down to this: Let's keep the details of these agreements hidden from view so that corporate wrongdoers don't have to worry about any real accountability for their illegal actions. That sounds great if you are a big company that breaks the law, but I don't think it sounds great to the American people. I think the American people are tired of seeing large corporations break the law and then negotiate sweetheart deals behind closed doors.…”