Jim Sensenbrenner: “Unfortunately, my colleague, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee), has missed the boat on a lot of the points.…”

“Unfortunately, my colleague, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee), has missed the boat on a lot of the points. First of all, I wonder how her Texas constituents would feel if the Enron class action lawsuit was filed in the Mississippi court that acted like the hometown umpire in one class action suit and gave residents of Mississippi who are members of the class 18 times more recompense than residents of other States? I think she would be the first one to come into this Congress and say that that is an outrage and that we ought to provide the protection of the Federal court for people who live outside of Mississippi. This bill does that. Secondly, the plaintiffs in the Enron class action lawsuit chose Federal Court to file their class action lawsuits. What is the beef? Thirdly, because Enron has filed for bankruptcy, all claims against Enron are heard in the Federal Bankruptcy Court under the constitutional provision that the Congress adopts a bankruptcy law.”