Wednesday, July 31, 2002
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Wednesday, July 31, 2002 |
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Collins votes to sustain marketplace growth WASHINGTON Congressman Mac Collins stunned observers by opposing a politically popular corporate accountability measure which would criminalize risk and create an impediment to sustained market growth today. Collins opposed the Corporate Accountability Conference Report (H.R. 3763) which passed the House of Representatives on a vote of 423-3. "This bill is politics, pure and simple. Congress has heard the demand to do something about the fraud and corruption in business, and they just jumped on the first bill that came along," said Collins. "Don't get me wrong, those who defraud their investors need to be prosecuted and if convicted, thrown in jail for a long time. This is already occurring. Those executives who have committed fraud are being investigated and prosecuted. They need to be prevented from ever serving on another board of directors, but we already have the means to do that." While Collins applauded many of the measures contained in the bill, such as auditor independence, tougher penalties, and preventing analyst conflict of interest, he has concerns with creating an additional layer of bureaucracy. "What you're going to have when there is a failure by the SEC oversight committee created to oversee the business community is a committee to oversee the committee to oversee the overseers? We already have the SEC, let's give them tools to do a better job and let the market continue to make corrections," said Collins. The corrections Collins was talking about, which are already occurring, include boards reviewing their accounting practices, creating checks and balances in their processes, and the dismissal and prosecution of corrupt CEO's and CFO's. In addition, previously passed legislation and regulations already provide many of the protections covered in the bill, including black-out periods for company directors, and pension plan protections. "This bill goes too far. It criminalizes speculation and risk. It creates a disincentive for corporate investment. It threatens the economy and jobs. It is a political knee-jerk in an election year. I don't vote to pass bad legislation so that I may return home and tell the people of the Third Congressional District of Georgia 'look what I did for you' and I am not about to start now," Collins said. "Good policy makes good politics, you just have to make sure that you put the good of the people and the nation ahead of the politics."
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