Jack Fields: “First of all, I would be remiss if I did not point out that the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bliley] is once again…”

“First of all, I would be remiss if I did not point out that the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bliley] is once again bringing a very complex piece of legislation to the floor that is meaningful in reform and it is bipartisan in nature. For me personally, this is an exciting day, exciting because we have been able to negotiate in a very complex issue area with bipartisan cooperation, and we dramatically reform and modernize the regulation of this country's capital markets. I would be less than candid if I did not say that part of my excitement is in the fact that we were able to forge and pass this legislation when everyone said that it could not be done, and we were told earlier that our telecommunications reform legislation was too complex and too contentious to pass. With each of these difficult subject matter areas, the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Markey], my good friend and ranking minority member of our subcommittee, and I were able to find commonality rather than partisanship, were able to exercise our personal friendship in representing our Members and our constituencies rather than looking for political points to score. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate all the nice things that the gentleman said about me just a moment ago, but I want to say 'ditto' so that the gentleman does not get one up in terms of being overly nice with his compliments. I also want to say that we shared the beliefs of investor protection.”