Political Quotes

“I join today in introducing the Curt Flood Act of 1997. Like the earlier version of this legislation that I sponsored in the last Congress, this bill is intended to cut back on the unjustified, judicially created exemption from the antitrust laws. In my view no one is or should be above the law. Last Congress for the first time in our history, the Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reported language designed to cut back baseball's judicially mandated and aberrational antitrust exemption. We did so with the support of the Clinton administration and a bipartisan coalition of Senators. This bill reflects that language. The Senate refused to consider the measure over the last 2 years. In part that may be explained by the opposition from major league baseball team owners and perhaps by a feeling among some that we should not legislate during a time in which there was a labor-management impasse. Both those concerns have now been removed with the recent, 5-year agreement between the major league baseball team owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association. Indeed, a provision in that agreement calls for the owners to lobby Congress in support of the repeal of the antitrust exemption, at least to the extent it relates to labor-management relations. It is time to build on the progress we made last year and long past time for the Senate to act.”