Political Quotes

“I came over to the floor because I am in sympathy with what the Senator from California is trying to do. But this bill has taken such a pasting in the last 15 or 20 minutes that I am going to take a couple of minutes to correct the Record before we actually get into the merits of what my colleague is trying to do. For example, I have heard repeatedly that if you pass this bipartisan legislation put together by the Senator from Arizona and the Democratic leader on technology issues, Senator Dodd, and myself, well, these companies won't have to do anything; they won't have to do anything at all. Well, if they don't do anything at all, they are going to get sued. That is what is going to happen to them. Then we heard that if they were big and bad, they were going to get a free ride. I heard that several times here on the floor of the Senate in the last 15 or 20 minutes. If you are big and bad, you are going to get a free ride if we pass this bill. I will tell you what happens if you are big and if you engage in egregious activity, if you rip people off; what happens is you get stuck for punitive damages because there is absolutely no cap on those, and joint and several liability applies to those people as well. That is what happens to the people who are big and bad under our legislation.”