Stephanie Herseth Sandlin: “Mr. Speaker, today's debate has illustrated a number of very serious problems with the bill before us. By federalizing…”

“Mr. Speaker, today's debate has illustrated a number of very serious problems with the bill before us. By federalizing class actions, it would make it far more burdensome, expensive, and time-consuming for groups of injured victims to obtain access to justice and far more difficult to protect our citizens against violations of fraud, consumer health, safety, and environmental laws. The legislation goes so far as to prevent State courts from considering class actions which involve solely violations of State laws such as State consumer protection laws. In the post-Enron world, when we are trying to hold corporate wrongdoers accountable for their actions, this bill takes us in exactly the wrong direction. The motion to recommit responds to another very serious problem with this legislation: the fact that it would permit parties who engage in terrorism to remove a class action brought against them in Federal court. As the bill is presently written, if a terrorist released a nuclear device or an anthrax cloud, the harmed victims could very well lose their ability to seek redress as a class in their local State court. For example, if a class composed of mostly New Yorkers, but some citizens in New Jersey and Connecticut, want to pursue a terrorist in New York State court, I believe they should have that option. It is a matter of national security. This bill today prevents that.”