Political Quotes

“I rise in support of S. 1890, the Stock Option Accounting Reform Act. I am pleased to cosponsor this important legislation, and I applaud the distinguished Senator from Wyoming, Senator Enzi, and the distinguished Democratic whip for their leadership. I urge all my colleagues to pay close attention to this legislation, and to join those of us who believe that the mandatory expensing of stock options would harm American companies, and more importantly, harm American workers who benefit from the issuance of stock options from their employers. The Financial Accounting Standards Board--FASB--may soon take action that would require public companies to record employee stock options as an expense. This will unequivocally impede economic growth and stifle the economic recovery of our high-tech sector as well as other industries. As a result of FASB's proposal, companies will take a massive earnings charge based on stock option 'costs'. Just as we hope to turn the corner, the tech industry will be disproportionately hit with phantom costs that will undermine general investor confidence in the tech recovery. Expensing will destroy our partnership culture of distributing stock options to our entire workforce. We know from empirical research that broad-based employee ownership delivers higher returns to shareholders, greater productivity, and increased returns on equity.”