Jay Inslee: “It takes real chutzpah to bring this bill at this time. It takes real chutzpah, after we have thousands of Enron…”

“It takes real chutzpah to bring this bill at this time. It takes real chutzpah, after we have thousands of Enron employees having lost their life savings, to bring a bill to diminish the rights of Americans to be compensated for their losses. It takes chutzpah to bring a bill to the floor of the House at this time to the benefit of the Ken Lays and the Mr. Skillings of the world. Now, think about the timing of this. Think about the timing of this. The very first bill that comes to the floor of the House after Enron takes the life savings away from Americans is to make it easier for people to do that and harder for people to get compensation when it happens to them. Now, before we go home for spring break, when we go home and talk to our constituents and they ask us, Joe, Mr. Congressman, What did you do about the Enron situation, I do not think the first thing we should say is, We made it hard for Americans to get compensation for their losses. In fact, that is what this is about, because when we strip away the verbiage and the philosophical language that we have all sincerely engaged in here today, this is about one thing. Some people who have been burned because they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar in class action litigation want to make it harder for Americans to bring class action litigation. That is what this is about because they know a simple thing. The Federal courts do not have room for any more class action litigation.”