Political Quotes

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, H.R. 5330 extends by 10 years the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Extension Act of 2004, an important tool in combating illegal cartel behavior. Set to expire next month, the 2004 act promotes the detection and prosecution of illegal cartel behavior by giving participants in a price-fixing cartel powerful incentives to report the cartel to the Justice Department's Antitrust Division and to cooperate in the investigation and prosecution. Criminal cartel enforcement targets some of the worst crimes perpetrated on American consumers, but these crimes are not easily detected because the actual criminal activity takes place in secret meetings, behind closed doors among willing coconspirators. So even with the hard work of the Antitrust Division, price-fixing cartels can often go undetected. With hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars of unlawful profits at stake, these criminals work hard to keep their actions secret. In August 1993, the Antitrust Division revised its existing program to destabilize cartels by giving cartel participants a strong incentive to break the code of silence and report the cartel. This program offers amnesty from criminal prosecution for the first company to report the cartel. The company cannot have been the ringleader, and it has to continue cooperating fully with the criminal investigation and prosecution.…”