Jon S. Corzine: “I, too, wish to verbalize my opposition to this amendment that tries to draw in a completely extraneous item which has…”

“I, too, wish to verbalize my opposition to this amendment that tries to draw in a completely extraneous item which has not been debated in the context of this bill in the 10 committee hearings we had with regard to putting together the Corporate Corruption and Investor Protection Act. It has not been involved in any of the President's discussions about corporate abuse or fraud that we have heard discussed. It is not in any way related to the group of organizations with which we are attempting to deal, which are large, publicly traded corporations, and really ignores the fact that there is already a body of law that deals with union organizations and union officers with regard to their responsibility to their memberships and for their reporting requirements. For a whole host of reasons, I do not understand how this even relates to the issue that is the fundamental part of the underlying bill, and there certainly is not any evidence in the marketplace of ideas and activities across America that would justify pulling labor unions by their actions into the fish net about which we are talking. This is about corporate corruption. It is about investor protection. It is about making sure corporate fraud is properly dealt with in the legal system, one that puts everyone on notice that they have serious responsibilities to certify that what is reported is real, and if it is not real, then people are held accountable.”