Political Quotes

“I think this bill is a solution in search of a problem. In 1995, the Commerce Committee developed and Congress approved, over a Presidential veto, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, which put strict limits on Federal investor class action lawsuits. I opposed that legislation because I was concerned about preventing defrauded investors from being made whole again. But my side lost, and we all moved on. One of the arguments when we debated the 1995 act was that truly victimized investors could still seek redress in State court. So there was some comfort in that; retirees who lost their life savings to securities fraud could still pursue legal action. Now, however, I fear that Congress is moving to cut off the State avenue for class action securities suits. That could mean that investors would have no ability to seek relief from securities wrongdoers, and that is unacceptable to me. There appears to be no explosion of State securities class actions, so I see no real need for this bill.”