Text of Morning Session of Hearing on Enron
The New York Times
February 7, 2002
(Page 8 of 22)
Mr. Chairman, more than having these
men explain their actions to the nation,
more than making sure that the guilty
are punished, this hearing is about
returning the financial stability and
sense of economic interest and security
to our nation.
Just as the World Trade Center bombers
have shaken the sense of personal
security for millions of Americans, the
Enron catastrophe has left our public
without a sense of economic security. At
the center of this economic meltdown, we find a handful of economic terrorists. But
unlike most terrorists who base their actions on twisted and perverse ideals of justice
and righteousness, the economic terrorists at Enron had one cause: selfishness and
greed.
So, as we begin today's hearing, I ask each of you who profited from the downfall of
thousands whether it was worth it. I suspect that some of you may answer yes.
However, I sincerely hope that you live long enough to regret that particular sentiment.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my time.
REP. GREENWOOD: The chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes for purposes of an
opening statement the gentleman from Oklahoma, Mr. Largent.
REP. STEVE LARGENT (R-OK): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I too will be brief in an effort
to move this hearing forward and try to bring a little perspective and balance to my
comments here.
Mr. Chairman, as you know, last night we prepared for this
subcommittee hearing. Our subcommittee and staff met
about six o'clock last night, and I was particularly impressed
by some comments that you made that I felt like really
brought some focus for the purpose and intention of this
hearing. It's not a time for us to demagogue, although there
is a lot of that going on, or even to prosecute -- that's up to
the Justice Department to figure out what laws currently on
the books have been broken, and I am sure that they will do
a competent job of that.
But, rather, the purpose for this hearing is to find out the
laws that were not broken, but the things that were done in
this Enron debacle that were legal but perhaps shouldn't be.
And I think that is the purpose of this hearing. And I look
forward to hearing the testimony of the folks who are on the
panels today, so that we can find out and help prevent perhaps through the passage of
additional laws that are not on the books but should be. And so, Mr. Chairman, with
that, I thank you for holding this hearing and I look forward to the testimony and yield
back my time.
REP. GREENWOOD: The chair thanks the gentleman and agrees with him, and
recognizes for an opening statement the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Stupak.
REP. BART STUPAK (D-MI): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Over the past several weeks we
have held numerous hearings to explore this house of cars that was once the muddy
Enron Corporation. Yesterday we heard from a panel of experts who walked us through
the accounting principles; the legal, ethical and moral principles that should be
adhered to in corporate America.
In the past we have heard from Andersen employees about the shredding of documents
and the destruction of e-mail that went on in an effort I am sure to cover up this whole
mess. We have heard from Mr. Powers about his commission finding, and the actions of
several Enron employees to set up special purpose entities to assist in cooking the
books at Enron. We've heard and read about the totally lax oversight by Mr. Lay, Mr.
Skilling and other executives on Enron's board of directors.
Enron's board of directors gave dangerous flexibility to Mr. Fastow in allowing him to
establish several of these special purpose entities. They, the board of directors,
supposedly put in a number of checks and balances in place when they waived their
conflict of interests provisions. But thus far all the checks we have seen, tens and
millions of dollars worth, went into bank accounts of Mr. Fastow and others.
There certainly were -- there certainly were no checks or balances in the equations,
and no follow-up to make sure the company wasn't being bilked. We've learned new
terms, like "aggressive accounting," which in this case translates, I believe, into
making individuals richer while we stick it to the shareholders and the workers. I'm
glad to see some of the Enron workers here today who gave so much and lost so much.
This new aggressive accounting I believe is a result of a new cavalier attitude in
corporate America since the passage of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, or
as some of us refer to it, "The Securities Rip-Off Litigation."
As I look at all that's happened, this new law, what it does -- it insulates corporations
from legal actions by putting up roadblocks so employees and stockholders cannot take
legal actions when the books have been stacked against them.
Mr. Chairman, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for Enron to reemerge as a credible
company from bankruptcy without a comprehensive and complete purging of all Enron
executives and board members who were at the helm during this whole debacle. They
must be held accountable. And I hope the shareholders and the employees of Enron
will do themselves a favor and get a true board of directors and new management
team.
Mr. Chairman, I could go on with my statement, but I am going to yield back the
balance of my time, because I am really interested to see who is going to testify, who is
not going to, and look forward to the questioning and cross-examination. I appreciate
your leadership in this whole matter. We spent a lot of time together in the last couple
of weeks, and look forward to continuing on this Enron mess. Thank you.
REP. GREENWOOD: The chair thanks the gentleman. And we are almost there. The
chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Strickland, for an opening statement.
SEN. TED STRICKLAND (D-OH): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today we are taking an
in-depth look at the corporate thievery and greed that resulted in the collapse of
Enron. Thousands of people lost their jobs sand their retirement savings. Investors and
shareholders lost billions in debt and equity. Plans and dreams of these people have
gone up in smoke.
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