John Conyers: “Yes, it was defeated in the committee; but with no derogatory reflection on the committee. It was passed in the House by…”

“Yes, it was defeated in the committee; but with no derogatory reflection on the committee. It was passed in the House by a vote of 258 to 166, and then it was approved by an even larger motion to instruct conferees by 256 to 142, February 29, 1996. If the gentlemen are suggesting that I have got to pass an amendment in the Committee on the Judiciary before I can pass an amendment that has already passed on the floor, we maybe ought to reconsider the way that Congress works. Notwithstanding the Members in the committee, this is a very popular motion. Let us talk about the problems that one might examine here. First of all, I do not want to put the gentleman into a not wanting to protect American interests like the majority of us do. I know he does. I would argue that for anybody. But there is no retaliation. We are the ones that are being disadvantaged already. What I am doing is trying to level the playing field. The fact of the matter is that Americans cannot reach foreign corporations because we are tied up by their laws of service, their laws of discovery, their laws of bringing them into litigation. All I am saying is that foreign corporations, if and when they may be the subject of litigation, would be subject to no less rules of procedure than American corporations.”