Debbie Dingell: “The simple fact of the matter, however, is this is a bad piece of legislation. It is unfair, it subjects the taxpayers…”

“The simple fact of the matter, however, is this is a bad piece of legislation. It is unfair, it subjects the taxpayers of the United States to large liability under the Tucker Act, and I am talking about billions of dollars. This Congress has learned before that this is a risk, but it appears that we have to relearn the unfortunate lessons that we learned when we wrote the legislation on Conrail and when we did away with the unfortunate New York Central Railroad, and the bankruptcy and the reorganization by statute. We subjected the taxpayers to about $6 rac{1}{2}illion in liabilities because we interfered with the contracts, we interfered with the business, and we interfered with the goodwill and the going value of the corporation, and it cost the taxpayers dearly. This is not a mistake which we should repeat today. Mr. Chairman, H.R. 1872 has laudable goals. Unfortunately this legislation is going to fail. It is anticompetitive, it is anticonsumer and, worse, it is unconstitutional.”