Hon. Michael G. Oxley: “we indeed, I would say to my friend from New York, have come a long way. This has been quite a journey. The gentleman…”

“we indeed, I would say to my friend from New York, have come a long way. This has been quite a journey. The gentleman from New York pointed out that we had first gotten that jurisdiction in the new Committee on Financial Services last January, and what a ride it has been on a number of very important issues, but nothing is more important really than restoring investor confidence in our system, and that is really what brings us here today in this legislation. Our committee was the first to have a hearing when Enron became an issue. That was back last year, in December. We were the first committee to have a hearing on the WorldCom bankruptcy. We then passed meaningful legislation, known as CARTA, back in April when nobody thought we could do it, passed it out of the committee on a bipartisan vote, came to the floor, it passed by a 3-to-1 margin with 119 Democrats voting for that legislation, and the heart and soul of what we have today was embodied in the CARTA legislation. There is a lot of misinformation out there that that is not the case. Believe me, the idea of having an oversight board, an independent oversight board, tightening the rules through the SEC, providing more penalties and more transparency all were embodied in the CARTA legislation and that is why it enjoyed such wide bipartisan support. And then 3 months later, the Senate acted when the WorldCom situation blew up, and I give them a great deal of credit.…”