Scott McInnis

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, it is with a solemn heart that I take this opportunity to pay respect to the passing of James Suckla, who recently passed away at the age of 82 in Cortez, Colorado. James, known as Jack to his family and friends, will always be remembered as a generous, wise cattleman. His voice was heard at many a rodeo, his auctioneering at many a livestock sale, and his advice was sought by many in his community. Jack's wise management of his ranches and his wisdom and whit on committees earned him a respect that many only dream of and his love and care for his family and friends should be a guide for all to live by. Jack Suckla was born in Frederick, Colorado on July 25th, 1919, to Anthony and Dorothy Suckla. The youngest of seven children, Jack learned many important lessons in his childhood, which served him well throughout his life. He married Helen Bradfield in Aztec, New Mexico on July 29, 1941 and remained with her for the following sixty years in which they were blessed with children and eight grandchildren. Jack joined the Navy during World War II, and after being wounded, returned to Cortez and followed the rodeo circuit as an announcer for twenty years. Jack awed the crowd during his rodeo career as a saddle bronco rider. He purchased the Cortez sale barn in 1953, and operated it with two of his sons, Larry and Jimmy. Jack went on to serve on numerous committees, including the NCA, SWCLA, BLM advisory board, the Forest Service, Vectra Bank Board of Directors, and the American Legion. His service stands as a testament to his dedication to not only his life long love of ranching but to his community and country Mr. Speaker, Jack Suckla was a remarkable man whose leadership and goodwill towards people have inspired so many and whose good deeds certainly deserve the recognition of this body of Congress and this nation. Jack's departure leaves a gap in many hearts but his memory will surely live on in the thoughts and lives of those who know him. I join many others in expressing my deepest condolences to the friends and family of Jack Suckla.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Jeff Hammond, an individual who has selflessly devoted countless hours towards the betterment of his community. In June of this year, Jeff was named "Volunteer of the Year,'' by the United Way Organization. Jeff is a hard working, determined, attentive individual whose selfless dedication certainly deserves the admiration of this body of Congress and this nation. Jeff is an active participant in the Craig Youth Soccer program and in addition, he is an active community volunteer who donates his time to helping the community. This entirely volunteer league could not have made critical strides in the development of its youth, without Jeff's contributions. Jeff donates his time equally to supporting religious functions, fundraisers, car pools, and the Northwest Colorado All-Star Wildkat cheerleading squad. Although Jeff's busy schedule envelopes most of his time, Jeff places first and foremost his devotion and loyalty to his family duties, as a father and husband do not interfere. He and his wife have been married for 12 years and are the proud parents of two children. Mr. Speaker it is with great pleasure that I honor Jeff's accomplishments and achievements before this body of Congress and this nation. Jeff Hammond's service to our community has helped strengthen the foundation upon which our great nation was founded and it is with great anticipation I await further successes and achievements in all your endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, it is with a solemn heart that I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the untimely death of a fallen firefighter who gave his life in defense of this nation's forests and the people of Colorado. Alan Wayne Wyatt, 51, of Moore's Hollow in eastern Oregon, was killed by a flame-weakened tree or what firefighters sometimes call a ``widowmaker'', while fighting the Missionary Ridge Fire, which has been burning since June 11th. - Alan worked as a firefighter, cattle rancher, and rodeo saddle bronc rider, and was considered by many to be a ``modern cowboy''. Alan was a loving husband and father of two and was known to his family as a man who took his job seriously and never undertook a job without the utmost caution to threats of danger. He died fighting a fire, which he understood was out of control, and needed containment. Allen is a hero in the true sense of the word and is survived by his wife, Vicky Wyatt; Evans; and Wells Wyatt, all of Oregon. Alan was a knowledgeable and skilled firefighter who will always be remembered as a man of character and a love of nature, his family, and God. Mr. Speaker, it is with profound sadness that we remember the life of firefighter Alan Wayne Wyatt. His death highlights the great risks that firefighters encounter day in and day out while on the job and we will truly remember Alan as a brave man who died in defense of life. His sacrifice most certainly deserves the recognition of this body of Congress and this nation. I along with a grateful nation and a loving family will miss you, Alan.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, today I have the honor of recognizing the accomplishments and life of Fred Stahl, of the Western Slope of Colorado. For the past twenty-five years, Mr. Stahl has greatly contributed to the preservation of Colorado's resources in his duties at the Plant Insectary Division of the Colorado State Department of Agriculture. His selfless contributions to his community are quite deserving of our recognition and I am honored to bring forth his accomplishments before you today. Fred Stahl began his environmental preservation career after he graduated from Colorado State University in 1977 with a Masters of Botany and Plant Pathology. When he joined the Plant Insectary Division on April 22, 1977, he immediately began working to reverse the adverse impact of immigration to the ecosystem in Colorado, which were caused by the transportation of unnatural organisms from other countries. He is credited with reducing the amount of pesticide use in Colorado by providing farmers with alternative, environmentally safe methods of pest control. These new methods of pest control have lowered agricultural production costs, decreased the amounts of toxins deposited into the environment, and offered various pest-control options to the farming community. Mr. Speaker, I stand before you to show my appreciation to Mr. Stahl for his efforts to preserve the environment and natural beauty of Colorado. He has truly set an example for not only his community, but also the entire state. I am honored to praise his accomplishment before this Body of Congress and this nation today. Good luck to you, Fred in your retirement and all your future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, it is with a solemn heart that I take this opportunity to pay respect to the passing of William H. Lorenzen, who recently passed away at the age of 82. William, known as Bill, was the former owner and co-publisher of the Palisades Tribune. Bill died on May 6th in Denver, Colorado. As his friends and family mourn the loss of an outstanding patriot, father, and husband, I would like to take this moment to highlight his achievements before this body of Congress and this nation. Bill served in the Army Air Corps as a radio operator during WWII where he successfully flew 35 combat missions in B-24's and for his valiant valor and courage, he was awarded five bronze stars, a silver star, and two Distinguished Flying Crosses. Bill's service on behalf of freedom should help serve to reinvigorate our nation's consciousness of the sacrifices made to defend this country. He met and married his wife of 56 years, Margaret Sullivan, in July 1943 while both were in the Army, beginning a family future and legacy passed down through generations. After the war, Bill was active in his civic and public communities, providing Colorado's youth an upstanding foundation. Bill established himself as a longtime businessman and leader in the Palisade community where he owned and operated the Palisade Tribune for 26 years. He served six years as Town Trustee, eight years as Mayor and five-and-one-half as Municipal Judge. Bill also played an active role in the Colorado Municipal League and was a director of the League for two terms before serving as president of the Western District of the Colorado Press Association and as a chairman on the legal committee for the Press Association. After retiring from the Palisades Tribune, Bill joined the Palisades National Bank as director in 1982 and served on the board until his death. Bill received many distinguished accolades throughout his career including the Distinguished Service Award and was named Citizen of the Year for Palisade. Bill is survived by his three children and eight grandchildren. Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that we celebrate the life of William H. ``Bill'' Lorenzen. He was a remarkable man and his impressive accomplishments certainly deserve the recognition of this body of Congress and this nation. I, along with his grateful community and loving family, will miss you Bill.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, tonight I pay tribute to the passing of Juanita Martinez, who was selflessly committed to the betterment of Pueblo. After a long battle, Juanita succumbed to the effects of cancer on June 30, 2002. As her family mourns the loss, I would like to highlight her life before this body of Congress and this nation. Juanita Martinez was an avid dancer who provided lessons free of charge, and even bought costumes for her students! She was the first Chicana dance instructor to teach Mexican folk dancing at the University of Southern Colorado, and choreographed the dance for the Colorado State Fair's First Annual Fiesta Day celebration. She also frequently performed at Memorial Hall in Pueblo as a young Zaragoza Hall dancer, whose styles mirrored Mexican folk dances to reflect her beloved heritage. Her most famous dance escapade resulted when she performed with then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan during a campaign stop at the Colorado Republican State Assembly. She was extremely patriotic, and always wore red-white-and-blue in her daily attire to show her devotion to her country. Mr. Speaker, Juanita Martinez encompassed the qualities of a true community volunteer, and she and her efforts will be dearly missed. I, along with her loving family and grateful community, will mourn her loss.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, today I stand before you and this nation to applaud the accomplishments of Mr. Steve Arveschoug. Mr. Arveschoug's hard work and dedication to his field, the facilitation of Colorado's water system, has truly been an inspiration to all. His practical rationalization of increasing problems proved his ability to account not only for immediate reactions to decisions, but long-term repercussions as well. He has selflessly dedicated himself to the well being of others, and he is certainly deserving of our recognition today. Steve Arveschoug began his career managing KCSJ and KID'N radio stations, later switching to working in state and federal politics. He ran for the position of state representative in the northwest Pueblo County area and stayed in the legislature until 1992 when he retired to spend more time with his family. He later took interest in local water rights issues and began to research water policies for the State of Colorado. He worked for me as District Director and will soon be going to Cortez, where I look forward to continuing our relationship. In 1995, Mr. Arveschoug took over the job of general manager of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District and immediately began investigating a number of perspectives in current water issues to allow him to adequately represent all the members of his district. He applied himself to his job with the utmost dedication and stood by the position that a compromise could always be reached when available water resources could be managed to serve the people, the environment, and recreational activities. He created water replacement programs for large-scale wells and supported the Preferred Storage Options Plan, designed to enlarge sections of the Pueblo and Turquoise Reservoirs. Mr. Speaker, it gives me immense pleasure to stand before you today and show my appreciation to Steve Arveschoug for his commitment towards the betterment of his community. I congratulate him on his new job and wish him all the best in his dedication and commitment to excellence and service and wish him luck with all of his future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I stand before you to salute an incredible individual of the Colorado Health Community who is one of the six recipients of the 2002 YWCA Anna Taussig Tribute to Women Award. Joni has committed herself to the study and evaluation of hospices around the world to increase the ability of others to care for the terminally ill. She has an unrelenting passion for her work, which has been illustrated countless times through her dedication to improve hospice conditions. It is my pleasure to honor her today before this body of Congress and this nation. Joni Fair is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Sangre de Cristo Hospice in Colorado, and has traveled across the world to educate caretakers about the terminally ill; her latest trip to Japan led to the establishment of the first hospice ever in Japan. Joni refuses to allow financial status to defer a patient from staying in a hospice and leaves her doors open to all who qualify for hospice care. For her passion, devotion and spirit, Joni has earned the El Pomar Foundation Award for Excellence, Colorado Hospice Program of the Year Award, National Hospice Award of Excellence, and the President's Award. Her diligence and integrity, established a precedent in the medical community worldwide. - Mr. Speaker, I ask you to join me in thanking Joni for her contributions and dedication to the comfort of her patients. I ask that this body recognize her efforts to make patient hospice life less distressful. She is a beacon of care in her community whose passion will shine beyond her legacy. Joni, Congratulations on your latest achievements and good luck in your future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to an individual whose pioneering efforts in the business market have led to numerous innovations. Rachel Henning is a trailblazer in technology that contributed to bolster the Denver economy. It is with much admiration that I pay tribute to and exemplary citizen of the State of Colorado. Rachel Henning is the founder and creator of Catalyst Search. Her cost effective staffing resource, provides businesses with the tools they need to survive in today's business market. Her initial idea to create a successful recruiting and consulting firm has become a reality and expanded to Denver, Colorado and the surrounding area. Anchored in Colorado, Catalyst Search acts as a pioneer of this 21st century providing clients the convenience and expertise necessary to compete. Rachel's hard work and determination, has built a great company worthy of admiration. As an active member of the Internet, Colorado, and Women's Chamber of Commerce, Rachel provides each organization with leadership and stability. She has contributed much time and effort to the civic and business communities in which she spends her time. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor and a pleasure to applaud the diligent efforts of Rachel Henning and I am honored to congratulate her before this body of Congress and this Nation. I believe her aspirations will grow into a very prosperous career as a business leader, and her diligence and commitment deserve our praise and I am honored to pay tribute to her today. Good luck to you, Rachel, in all your future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Richard Gonzalez, who has served as the Denver Regional Commissioner of the Social Security Administration since June 1998. Richard Gonzalez's innovative thinking and leadership was pivotal in guiding the Denver Region in improving Social Security services for the American Indians and Alaskan Natives. His retirement marks over thirty- seven years of Federal service and it is my honor to bring forth his accomplishments before this body of Congress and this nation. Richard Gonzalez began his career with the Social Security Administration as a Computer Programmer in the Bureau of Data Processing in headquarters after serving in the United States Air Force. Prior to coming to Denver, he served as Associate Commissioner for Systems Requirements at SSA headquarters in Baltimore, MD. Richard also held a number of senior level information systems positions with the Social Security Administration and was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 1994. Under Richard's leadership, Denver led national efforts to improve service delivery to rural communities by piloting outreach efforts in Northern New Mexico and Browning, Montana and partnering with the Chicago Region on a major outreach effort for three reservations in Minnesota. Richard Gonzalez was recognized for his outstanding service to the public and the Denver Region when he was awarded a prestigious Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive Award. He serves as the Vice Chairperson on the Denver Federal Executive Board Committee. Richard received his Bachelor of Science Degree from Towson State University and Master of Science Degree from John Hopkins University. He has received numerous citations and awards for his outstanding efforts as Commissioner. His many contributions are appreciated, and his countless hours of devotion have greatly improved the community of Denver and its surrounding areas. Richard is a devoted father and husband, and he cherishes the support and encouragement his family has provided throughout his career. He is married to Dr. Sylvia Simpson, and has two sons, Dan and Mathew. Mr. Speaker, it is a great privilege that I recognize Richard Gonzalez and his contributions to the City of Denver and this nation. His efforts have greatly helped many people throughout our country and I am proud to recognize him before this body of Congress today. Congratulations on your retirement Richard, and good luck in your future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Lucille Gutierrez of Alamosa, Colorado, for her guidance and counseling of the youth of her community. It is a great pleasure to praise such an individual whose talents and gifts have enriched countless individuals. I applaud your efforts and congratulate you on a job very well done. Lucille began her career as a teacher's aide in February of 1996. She excelled as a teacher and later became the educational site coordinator for the ``Head Start'' program, a program that offers early educational opportunities to preschoolers. Her volunteer work soon transformed into a full time position demanding long hours. Lucille's career began with 45 eager students, and she instilled in them crucial life skills and values. This year, Lucille retires as a leader for our youth. Although she will remain active in the lives of many students, her schedule will not be as demanding as it once was. The program since her arrival has grown substantially and now 103 children at Adams State College, participating in the program, will benefit from the legacy of Lucille. Many students who will be saddened to see her retire speak her nickname `grandma' with great affection. Lucille's colleagues in the profession are also saddened to see her go, but all understand and admire her decision to retire. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to commend Lucille Gutierrez before this body of Congress and this Nation. Her efforts and accomplishments are well respected and will be remembered by each individual she encountered. Thank you again, Lucille, for your contributions to future generations, and good luck in all your future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate an outstanding individual from Colorado whose hard work and commendable deeds have recently earned her the Minority Small Business Advocate of the Year award. Stephanie Herrera of Denver, Colorado is described as a small business owner, insurance professional, professor, dancer, mentor, community activist, and caring friend. Stephanie believes that ``when you want to get something done, find a busy person'' which is precisely how she has been described, and I am honored to bring forth her accomplishments before this body of Congress and nation. Stephanie's efforts are currently focused on children, helping other small businesses, continued active involvement in the Denver Community, her own business, and her husband of eight years, Dan Herrera. She is also currently pursuing a Doctorate degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in International Marketing, while finding time to teach management and marketing classes at the Community College of Denver. A long believer in community service, she is the founder of and director of Dancers of Americas, a multi-cultural dance program that focuses on providing young girls, predominantly from low-income families, the opportunity to dance. The Colorado Enterprise Fund has recently recognized Stephanie for her work at North High School in northwest Denver called Bizworks. Bizworks is a youth entrepreneurial program designed to build the skills and capacity of next generation entrepreneurs promoting self- employment and business ownership as a career choice among high school aged youth. Mr. Speaker, it is clear that Stephanie Herrera is a woman of great dedication and commitment to her professions and to the children of Denver. Her success is well earned and I am honored to bring forth her accomplishments before this body of Congress and this nation. Stephanie is a remarkable woman and it is my privilege to extend to her my congratulations on her selection for the Minority Small Business Advocate of the Year award. Stephanie, congratulations, and all the best to you in your future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today with both sorrow and pride in the recognition of the extraordinary contributions of a compassionate woman. Pauline C. Garcia was a hard working woman who contributed selflessly to the moral and ethical improvement of Pueblo, Colorado. She was a beacon of inspiration for many in her workplace and spiritual community. In recognition of Pauline Garcia's efforts, it gives me great pleasure to honor the life and memory of one of the six recipients of the 2002 YWCA Anna Taussig Tribute To Women Award, rewarded to professional women who show outstanding levels of accomplishment and service to the community. Pauline Garcia was a dedicated mother of eight, all of whom she inspired to recognize their goals and strive to achieve their dreams. After her children were grown, she received a degree in Early Childhood Education and worked for countless day care centers like Pueblo Head Start and The East Side ChildCare Center. She spent much of her free time volunteering for El Mesias Methodist Church as well as Bethel Methodist Church. Her work at El Mesias was so impressive that she was asked to come on board as Office Manager and helped coordinate daily operations for the Church. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to highlight the honesty, integrity, and valor of Pauline C. Garcia. Pauline illustrated the spirit of kindness to her community, and prepared young children to be the future leaders of their communities. Her compassion will live on in the hearts of those lives she touched and I extend my deepest sympathy and I have no doubt that her memory will continue to be a source of inspiration and comfort for her family.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I stand before this body of Congress today to honor a dedicated nurse and mother of two from Denver, Colorado. Lori A. Nimmerfroh was an exceptional woman who exhibited unrelenting passion and spirit throughout her life. She passed away only in March, far too early, at the age of 38. She will be remembered as a remarkable woman whose memory will be celebrated forever by her family, friends, and patients. Lori Nimmerfroh graduated from Grand Junction High School and continued her higher education at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. She later received her nursing degree from the University of Northern Colorado and began working for Mercy Medical Center in Denver. In 1997, she attained the position of clinical nurse coordinator for Rose Medical Center, and was promoted to nurse manager of the medical intensive care units in the surgical ward in 1999. Her colleagues honored her in 2000 when she was awarded the Rose Leader of the Year Award and was nominated for the Nightingale Award in 2002. Lori also had as enormous impact on her family, her parents Diane and Dick Reineer, brother and sister Steve and Jodi, her husband Paul, and two sons Nick and Hunter. Mr. Speaker, I am here today to join the loved ones of Lori A. Nimmerfroh in the mourning of her loss. She positively contributed to the betterment of her community, state, and nation. I would like to express my deepest condolences to her friends and family, and offer the recognition of this Body of Congress to the many impacts, both small and large that Lori made. While we will all miss her tremendously, all who knew her will be incalculably better off because she played a role in their lives.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Mr. Charles ``George'' Simms of Pueblo, Colorado and recognize his contributions and service to his community. George recently passed away at the age of 73. He was a longtime teacher and coach at Centennial High School and is remembered today as a hero and role model for many of his students and players. George was born in Walsenburg, Colorado and attended Centennial High School in Pueblo, where he excelled in basketball and baseball. As a student at Pueblo Junior College, veteran coach Harry Simmons referred to him as ``the best second baseman I ever coached.'' George continued his education and athletic career at Wyoming and after graduation in 1950; he signed a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. George's baseball career was interrupted when he joined the Air Force to fight courageously during the Korean War. During the war, he met his wife, Anne playing service basketball. George brought her back to Pueblo and began his teaching career in 1954. In 1982, George was inducted into the Greater Pueblo Sports Association Hall of Fame. He taught and coached baseball for twelve years. He and his wife celebrated their 50th anniversary last fall. George is survived by his wife, five children and eight grandchildren. Mr. Speaker, it is a great privilege that I recognize Charles Simms and his selfless contributions to the City of Pueblo and this nation. His friends remember him as ``George'' a man who didn't know that he was the hero.'' It is an honor for me to pay tribute to this veteran before this body of Congress and this nation. I express my condolences towards family and friends during this difficult time, but I would also like to remember the joy he provided to us all, his legacy and contributions will be greatly missed.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the Southeast Colorado Cattlewoman of the Year, Jennie Adrian of La Junta, Colorado. Jennie was chosen for Cattlewoman of the Year because she possesses all the specific traits of a great Cattlewoman. She is dependable, caring, smart, trustful, creative, and a hardworking partner in a ranching family. She is a generous soul whose good deeds and generous acts certainly deserve the recognition of this body of Congress, and this nation. Jennie was born in La Junta, Colorado and lived on a ranch near Kim until her family moved to Prescott, Arizona, where she finished school and later met her husband. Together they moved to Aspen, Colorado where they bought a ranch near Salida and raised their two children, Rusty and Audra. Jennie first became involved in Cowbelles in Chaffee County in 1967 where she served as Chairman for several committees and held several offices including President in 1981. She currently holds the office of Cowbelle Vice President in Otero County. Mr. Speaker, Jennie Adrian has proven herself to be a committed mother and wife as well as an extraordinary Cattlewoman and it is my honor to congratulate Jennie on her most recent and well-deserved award before this body of Congress and this nation. Congratulations Jennie and good luck to you and your family in all your future community endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, today I stand before this body of Congress and this nation to honor a western visionary and World War II veteran who recently passed away. Pete Seibert contributed selflessly to our nation in its time of need and I thank him for his unrelenting passion and valor. Pete was a remarkable man and his actions during and after World War II are the essence of everything that makes this country great. Pete Seibert is a veteran of the 10th Mountain Division of the Army, which studied and trained in Colorado. His platoon fought German forces in Italy's Po Valley, using their exceptional mountaineering skills to enable them to overcome the Germans. Regardless of his bravery, Sergeant Seiber was wounded on Mount Terminale in Italy and utterly destroyed his kneecap and femur. Yet, his injuries led to an honorable discharge at the young age of twenty-two, which enabled him to pursue his dreams. After World War II, Pete returned to Colorado, the state that provoked his passion for the mountains during his training in the 10th Mountain Division to turn his visions into a reality. He arrived in Aspen in 1946 and despite hampering injuries from war began working as Ski Patroller. His determination to reclaim his expert skiing skills prevailed, and in 1947 he won the downhill, slalom, and combined competitions in the Rocky Mountain Championships. Moreover, he became a member of the 1950 U.S. Alpine Ski team, a great honor. However, he is now more famously known in Colorado as the co-founder of Vail Ski Resort in 1959, he became a familiar image that represents Vail to many. Despite local skepticism from existing ski resorts, Pete traveled around the country to raise revenue to build the mountain, and refused to give up. In 1970 his perseverance paid off when Ski Magazine ranked Vail first rate and claimed it to be an amazing resort for all ages. Needless to say, Vail's business boomed, and its legacy is now world- renowned. In fact, in 2000 Ski Magazine listed him as the 3rd most influential skier of all time and in 2001, Vail named its most recent addition after Mr. Seibert; respectfully calling it ``Pete's Bowl''. Mr. Speaker, I ask you to join me today in celebrating the life of Pete Seibert who recently lost his battle with cancer. He overcame enemies of freedom, crippling war injuries, and literally ascended to the mountaintop in pursuit of his dreams. Pete had a remarkable spirit that empowered all who knew him. I would like to express my deepest condolences to his friends and family.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I intend this evening to spend a little time with you talking about a subject which, of course, is on the minds of many people across this country, and I want to look into it in some depth tonight so we can have an idea of where the problem rests, with what individuals the problem rests, and I intend to name these individuals by name, and what are some of the solutions. I think as Members of Congress, when we are elected to public office, we have an obligation not only to discuss the problems, but really our primary purpose in being elected back here is to try to come up with some solutions. It is always easy, always easy to determine about what the problem is. Sometimes it is easier than others. But what is more difficult is to come up with a solution. When we have tough problems back here, it requires that we cross the aisle. It requires that we take a nonpartisan approach, that we be as bipartisan as we can to come up with a solution that works for the American people. My topic this evening is corporate greed. And I can tell you that on one side of the aisle, and this is the last point that I will be as pointed here as I am going to be right now, but on the Democratic side of the aisle, including the minority leader, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), says they are looking at this corporate greed as an opportunity to gain 40 seats. That is what they say. We are going to take 40 seats as a result of this corporate greed. What I am urging the gentleman and his followers over there to do is quit talking about the type of political gain you can get out of this. Do not talk about that while the house is burning. What I suggest you do is work with us, all of us together, seize upon this problem, and work out a solution before this begins to spin out of control. We have a stock market out there that is in trouble. And if you look at the fundamentals of that stock market, that stock market should not be in trouble. We have inventories that are down. We have corporate profits that are coming up. Our unemployment rate is staying low. Our inflation rate is staying low. There is a lot of good, promising signs that our recovery in this economy is forthcoming, that it is in progress. But we can shoot ourselves in the foot, and that is exactly what is happening when the likes of the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt) come out here and say this is our opportunity to use it to our political advantage to gain 40 seats. But that talk aside, the problem that is happening to the retired people out there that were depending upon their retirement from some of these corrupt corporations, the employees that have lost their jobs out there by the tens of thousands because of corrupt CEOs, that is what the issue is. The American people, not for one moment the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt) believes that the issue here should be a decision between what we are going to do in November with political congressional seats. They do not want that. They want to figure out how they are going to keep their jobs and what is going to happen to the rascals, and rascals is only a friendly word to use for these CEOs that have allowed corporate greed to overtake their ethics and moral standards of this country. These people are worse than bank robbers. Remember, a bank robber is generally a poor person robbing from a rich institution. The case I will talk about this evening are rich individuals in rich institutions robbing from the poor people. That is worse than a bank robber; and yet the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt) and the Democrats decide that instead of trying to solve this problem and go after these people, to go after the Republican House seats. I am asking you to put it aside for a minute and join us as a team, all of us as a team, Democrats and Republicans, unaffiliated. As a team we need to address the corporate greed that has overtaken some of our chief executive officers. There are solutions out there, and there are solutions that can occur with bipartisan support. This House, under the leadership of the Speaker of the House, and, frankly, under the demands of the President of the United States will this week in my opinion, pass legislation that will be effective to help address this problem. But we can only do it if the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt) and the more radical Democrats put aside their partisanship and work towards the solution of getting our hands on these corporate CEOs and these corporations that are making their money by misleading, by breaching their fiduciary duties to the people that are really their owners. I think it is helpful, and some of you have heard my comments in the last couple of weeks on the same topic, I do not mean to be repetitive, but I think it is important that we repeat some of the basics of corporations in this country so we have an idea, an understanding of what we are dealing with today. Remember that corporations are not a body in themselves. They are not a human body, obviously. They are a structure that we made up in this country under our system. And corporations are a systemic model, so to speak, of how to carry out business that represents the interests of numerous individuals. Keep in mind that not all corporations are bad. In fact, most corporations do a pretty good job. We have a lot of wonderful products in this country that are the results of corporations, both small corporations and big corporations. The mainstay of this economy is not the big corporations like the Enrons or the Global Crossings or the Adelphia Cable Company or the Tycos or the K-Marts. The mainstay is small business and there are a lot of small businesses in this country that are corporations. You can go down town anywhere USA and you will find them that have incorporated, and they have the local drug store on the corner or they have a little taxi cab service and they have incorporated or maybe a little airport charter store and they have incorporated. It would be a mistake, you cannot throw all corporations into the same net as the Enron Corporation. But you have to take the Enrons and the Worldcoms and the Tycos and the K-Marts and the corporations like that that have done bad and do something about it. You have to march them to jail. You have to bring discipline into the process. Corporate structure in this country will only work as long as you have integrity as a part of the foundation. Of course, you have to have the other fundamentals. You have to have a legal structure. You have to have profit. But you have to have that integrity, and that integrity is a part of checks and balances that makes sure that the corporations, as Adam Smith would say, do not get out of hand; that we do not end up with a monolithic society where monopolies control everything. Let us talk about the corporate structure and what responsibilities there are for the various people involved in the corporate structure. Now, this little diagram I put together, this probably would not pass in a classroom setting in Harvard Business School, but it is something I think we can all work with. And I think it is something that we can understand as I go through my discussion this evening. The corporation. Remember, the very basic part of the corporation are the owners of the corporation, the owners of the business and that is what it is. It is a business, and it does not have to be a lots of owners. My wife, for example, her family are ranchers and they have a small ranch. And they probably have, I do not know, maybe 10 shareholders, maybe eight shareholders in their corporation. So we are not necessarily talking about large corporations. But for the benefit of this evening's discussion, let us talk about this structure. Here are your shareholders. Now, a corporation like Enron or a good corporation that seems to be viable, IBM or Coke or some of these others, General Electric, General Motors, they have millions of shareholders. They have millions of owners. And, obviously, because even the largest owner, for example, of General Motors may only own a fraction of 1 percent, what these shareholders have done is they are you and I, there are more people in America today that are shareholders than at any time in the history of this country. And that is good. That is real good. The problem is that if we do not reinstill the high level of standards of integrity and moral character in these corporations, we will see this large number of everyday Americans who are shareholders begin to reduce itself, and that hurts the system. The more people we can get involved in the investment and in the business of our country, the better it is for the country. The better it is for the business. The better it is for the individuals. So shareholders are really the foundation in the corporation. They pool their money together so that they can build a business. And that is exactly what has happened. Now, the shareholders are represented by a number of different people and different people have different duties to the shareholders. Again, keep in mind the shareholders are the owners. For example, here, the shareholders elect a board of directors. Now, what is a board of directors? A lot of people will tell you that the chief executive officer, which in the old days was called the president of the corporation, that the president of the corporation was really the person who ran that corporation. That is not true. The chief executive officer and, remember, that president and chief executive officer, for the purpose of my discussion this evening, these terms are synonymous. You can trade them off. So we will talk CEOs. The CEO of that corporation is not the top individual of that corporation. He or she answers to the board of directors and answers to the shareholders. And here in this particular case, this is the fundamental structure, you have the shareholders who elect the board of directors. This is an election year; and they elect these board of directors to represent their interests, the interests of the shareholders. They do not elect this board of directors to represent the interests of the chief executive officer. The chief executive officer is simply a tool in the operation of this corporation. Now, this sounds a little mundane; but you have to have a pretty good understanding of this to figure out where this fraud is taking place, why the checks and balances in our corporate structure in this country have broken down, what we need to do to bring back solutions. Let us talk about some of those checks and balances. We know that the shareholders elect a board of directors to represent the shareholders, to help provide a vision. And a lot of times the board of directors, you have two different types of boards, you have two different types of board members. You have an inside director on the board. An inside director is somebody who is employed with the company, and in almost all of the companies that I am aware of, the chief executive officer is also a member of the board of directors. But because the chief executive officer is employed by the corporation, he or she is considered to be an inside director. An outside director is someone who is not employed by the corporation, but, rather, has some type of business, theoretically, some type of business expertise outside the corporation that can bring that expertise to the corporation to benefit the corporation in guidance and to represent the shareholders. So, first of all, you have the shareholders. They elect the board of directors to represent them and then the board of directors to run the corporation hires the chief executive officer, and that is this box right here. Now, the chief executive officer represents, runs the day- to-day operations of the corporation. And, remember, the chief executive officer is not the top official in the company. The chief executive officer has to answer to a board of directors. The board of directors has a responsibility to be sure that the chief executive officer is carrying out his or her duties. On top of that, the board of directors has a fiduciary duty to the shareholders to be sure that their chief executive officer meets the kinds of standards and is able to run the corporation. Now, the CEO, we have a little box right here to my left that I call ``insiders.'' You hear a lot lately, and we will go over some of the corporations, you hear a lot lately about insiders, people inside the corporation who get special knowledge, who know when the stock is going to go up or down; and they have a special advantage, and they have an advantage over somebody outside the corporation, especially on a publicly traded corporation. Well, we know that, and the Security Exchange Commission, and in this country it has been the law for a long time, there are certain rules that insiders have to follow. They cannot deal stock, for example. Generally, they cannot buy or sell stock based on inside knowledge on a public corporation. They have got to be able to disclose that kind of thing. It is very obvious that fraud has been committed. Take the example of ImClone. ImClone is the one that you probably better know as the corporation matter that is involving Martha Stewart. There you have insiders of the corporation who know that a particular drug was not going to receive approval by the Federal Drug Administration. They also knew that as soon as word got out to the shareholders, to the people for whom they worked, that as soon as word got out the value of that share would collapse. So what did the insiders do? They went and sold their stock, and they called their buddies like Martha Stewart and others and made sure they could also sell their stock before the general knowledge within the corporation became known. That is what is called inside knowledge. The same thing with K-Mart Corporation. The same thing with Adelphia Cable. The same thing with TYCO. The same thing with Enron Corporation. That is an example we have had around for several months. WorldCom. Scott Sullivan who, by the way, has a $19 million home down in Florida that he is living in, a lot of it is based on insider knowledge. The same thing with Global Crossing. Gary Winnick out in Bel Air, California, building a $90 million home. These people are robber barons. They were trading on inside knowledge because they are insiders. And, unfortunately, in many of those cases, the board of directors, who had a fiduciary responsibility to oversee these people, in many cases did not oversee them. They joined the robber barons. They help rob the shareholders of value. Not just the shareholders, but the responsibility to the public at large, and instead of coming out with a better product, like a good toothpaste or a better car, instead of doing that, they decided that in the short run, it would be better to cheat the people, cheat the shareholders. I can tell my colleagues anytime we have a chief executive officer like Gary Winnick with Global Crossing, like the Adelphia Cable Company and the Regis family there, or the Enron corporation with Andrew Fastow, who paid himself $30 million, where was the board of directors? Take a look at Kmart, the Charles Conaway, Bernie Ebbers, I have got a bunch of names I can give my colleagues here. Conseco, Steve Hilbert. Any time we see a problem with the chief executive officer of whether they are overpaid or whether they are improperly using inside knowledge, whether they have improperly disclosed inside knowledge, we will find two things. One, they are doing it for their own self- enrichment, to make themselves wealthier, as demonstrated by the Scott Sullivans of Florida, by the way he is protected from bankruptcy by a $20 million home, or Gary Winnick with a 90-million-plus home in Bel Air, California. We will see, number one, it is self-enrichment, and two, we will find negligence on the board of directors. Can my colleagues tell me that the board of directors for Enron Corporation, for example, were carrying out their fiduciary duties in representing the shareholders and allowed Andrew Fastow to go out there and create several satellite companies? And just to be a little sarcastic, I guess, or a little smartie, he named them after Star Wars characters, and then paid himself $30- or $40- or $50 million on top of the money that he paid to his buddies. I mean anytime we find a bad CEO, we are going to find generally a bad board of directors. I am not talking about a bad CEO who misreads the market. I am talking about a CEO that has got a problem with morality, that has got a problem with honesty, that fudges the figures, like Scott Sullivan or Bernie Ebbers, that moves expenses, capitalizes them instead of expenses, and I know that is kind of an accounting term, but these kind of things are fundamental to a board of directors. They know what is going on. If they do not know what is going on, they are breaching their duties. Let us go on. So this is what we would call basically the insiders of the corporation, the board of directors, the CEO and so on. They reach outside the corporation generally for two separate functions. One of them is outside auditing. A good chief executive officer looks at the outside auditor, and of anybody they want to be honest with them, if they are a good chief executive officer, the one group of people they especially want to be straightforward with them and not hide anything are the outside auditors because they are the ones who can tell them whether their strategy is working or not. They are the ones who can tell them, hey, the company, the business is going in the wrong direction; hey, our productivity is down; hey, you have got too much expense over here, you are not expensing properly over here. The auditors should be noncompromised. We have seen what has happened over time and, of course, the perfect example there is Arthur Andersen Corporation. It is an auditing firm, and what happens? Unfortunately, there were a lot of good employees with Arthur Andersen and there were a lot of people who retired from that company who saw their entire retirements eliminated because of the misbehavior by a few of the employees of this corporation, but those particular employees, the auditors, the accountants, they got too cozy with the management. What happened in Enron's case? They had their auditors who are supposed to be at arm's length, are supposed to give an honest assessment of the status of the corporation, and we can look at it. It happened in Global Crossing. It happened with Kmart. It happened with Sunbeam. It happened with ImClone, Xerox Corporation, where the auditors who were supposed to give an independent and frank assessment of the corporation, they did not do it, and then Enron Corporation, what happened is the auditors, they were auditors by day, consultants by night. What do I mean by that? Arthur Andersen Corporation, for example, with Enron would collect maybe $14 million a year to do auditing, but they also collected $40 or $50 or $60 million a year to do consulting. Do my colleagues think that when they give the CEO bad news that they are going to want to give him the bad news if they have a consulting arm of their corporation that makes a lot more money off him? Too cozy. There is a solution to that, and that is we require auditors to stick to the business that they are there for. They are not in the consulting business. They are not there to self-enrich themselves at the expense of the shareholders or at the expense of the employees, and of anybody, any classification on my chart that is the most unfortunate group of people, it is the employees. They are the ones who got hit the hardest. They are the ones who risked their jobs. In many cases, tens of thousands lost their jobs, and it is pretty upsetting when we see people who did not have meager retirements, had those retirements wiped out, while Gary Winnick of Global Crossing lives in a $90 million mansion in Bel Air or Andrew Fastow in Dallas today, as I am speaking right now, sitting in a multimillion dollar home, or Scott Sullivan down there with the WorldCom, Scott Sullivan. He is still building his $20 million home. These people have betrayed not just the shareholders but they have also betrayed the very people that worked so hard for them, and this is where accountability comes in. These people should have been revealed very early on. None of these little cooking-the-book maneuvers, none of this fraud that took place, none of this deceit to the board of directors or even with the board of directors to the shareholders, none of this should have occurred had the auditors been on their toes, had the auditors done what they were supposed to be doing. In the case, for example, of Enron, Arthur Andersen did not do what they were supposed to be doing. In fact, they cozied up to the management because they could self-enrich themselves. That is what we are seeing happening here. By the way, we are not seeing poor people, hardworking poor people that are enriched by this. We are seeing in a lot of cases people that are already wealthy and have to become wealthier. We see these people, the wealthiest people of the company, robbing the least fortunate people of the company. Let me continue on here. We have got to fix the auditing and, of course, the most obvious thing for auditing is to draw what they call a Chinese wall. We draw a wall between the auditing aspect of a company and the consulting. There is a need for consulting, corporate consulting, but in my opinion, it should not have anything at all to do with the auditing branch. Audits should be separate. The auditor should not be allowed to have any type of conflict of interest with the corporation. They should not be allowed to own stock in the corporation that they are auditing. They should not even get a free cup of coffee from the corporation that they are auditing. They should not announce their arrival. They should go in, they should do their work, they should summarize their results outside the corporate offices. Arthur Andersen actually had offices set up in the Enron office building. They mingled, had coffee, ate lunch, played golf, went to the theater and did investments with the very people they were supposed to keep an eye on. There is a saying, when the cat is away, the mice will play, and that is exactly what happened. One of our checks-and-balances on these corporations were bad, and let me say, again, not all of them were bad. We have a lot of good companies out there that produce a lot of good products that treat their employees right, and we have a lot of people who have jobs and we want to preserve their jobs. Jobs are very important, but the fact is, here, the cat, the auditor, went away and what happened? The mice did play. So we have got to work on that. Legal counsel, we have got legal counsel out there. I used to practice law. I know what they have to do. I know what the code of ethics is. That attorney with Tyco, and I can give my colleagues his name, general counsel, Mark Belnick, gave himself a $20 or $30 million bonus. Every corporation has to give public reports if they are public corporations, and these are supposed to be readable. They are supposed to be honest. And what did the attorney with Tyco Corporation do, Mark Belnick? He is an attorney. He has certain standards he is expected to meet to pass the bar, to be allowed to enter the bar of the State in which he was working. What did he do? He paid himself a $20 or $30 million bonus, of course, at the expense of the employees, and by the way, at the expense of the retired employees who have now had their pensions wiped out, and the shareholders. Not only did he do that, he made sure it was broken up in such a way it did not have to show up in the public report. Why this person still has a license to practice law is beyond me. I think he resides in New York State. Why New York State, their bar in that State, has not already called him in front of the bar to yank his license, I do not know. Those are the things that our society, those are the things that we have got to get serious about, and it requires a bipartisan effort. We have got to hit this corruption hard and quick. The corruption is not widespread. The perception is that the corruption is widespread out there, and it will become very widespread if we allow it to continue without punishment. These chief executive officers, these lawyers, these auditors that are not performing to the standards that are expected of them, need to be punished very quickly. We cannot allow them to go unscathed. We cannot allow the Scott Sullivan in Florida to go ahead and finish his $20 million home or Gary Winnick with Global Crossing who now lives in a $90 million, can my colleagues imagine a $90 million dollar home? Do we think he got that $90 million because he figured out a cure for cancer? Do we think he made his $90 million house because he invented a new seat belt? Do we think he got $90 million because he came up with a drug that would cure the common cold? Do we think he lives in a $90 million house because he came up with a textbook that would help our students in elementary school or some type of computer programming that would help our young people learn better? No, he did not get it that way. He got it because he breached the trust of his corporation. He breached the trust of his employees. Gary Winnick paid himself out of Global Crossing. I think he walked away with $790 million. Show me anybody in our society worth $790 million. Or take a look at Kmart Corporation, what those guys did, the executives of Kmart Corporation and Charles Conaway. Charles Conaway, the chief executive officer, they made themselves loans from Kmart. Kmart is not a bank. I do not think I have to tell anybody in here Kmart is not a bank, but these chief executive officers treated it like their own bank, and Conaway, for example, loaned himself from the corporation money and then a week before he took the corporation into bankruptcy, he went ahead and had the loan forgiven, had the loan forgiven, and we see that incident time and time and time again. I have a whole packet here of the names of these individuals, and I am going to go through a couple of examples, for example, of inside knowledge here in a moment. The point is that we have to have auditors to do their jobs and we have to have attorneys who are legal counsel, that attorney, who know what their role is. Their role is not self- enrichment in the corporation. Sure, they should be paid for their services, but they were not brought into that corporation to make themselves millionaires. This is exactly what happened in Tyco, for example. Tyco, of course, was tied in with Dennis Kozlowski, and my colleagues may remember Dennis. He is the guy that is worth three or $400 million and decided to cheat the State of New York by not paying sales tax on a few art pictures. Not much money relative to how much money he was worth. So what happens? I tell my colleagues, whenever we see this kind of cancer, whenever we see this in a corporation, it spreads. When we have the Dennis right here and the legal counsel in that particular case, both of them corrupt, what happens? Take a look. We better look at the books of that corporation real carefully. Let me go on here for a few moments. The management team. The management team. How could a management team at Enron Corporation that in any way whatsoever was looking out for the interest of the shareholders or living up to its civic responsibilities in the community, oh, sure they went out and put their name on the football stadium, and, sure, they went out and donated to charities, and, sure, they paid their board of directors a lot of money, but the way they did that was through fraud. It is very simple. It is not a complicated case. Do not let them tell you that this brings up the debate of whether or not this fraud should or should not occur. The reality is we do not allow somebody like Andy Fastow to go out and pay himself $30 million to live in multimillion dollar homes to run these corporations that the board of directors now claims they did not know anything about. We do not care whether they knew about it or not. It was their job to know about it and they are responsible at any one of these levels, at the management team, at the CEO, at the board of directors, at the auditing, at the legal counsel. That is where the buck ought to stop. The buck stops here. Any one of those you could put that plaque on their desk. Well, let us talk now about the bottom bracket I have here, the employees. In all this corporate fraud that we have heard about and these chief executives, like Ken Lay, and Sam Waksal, or Frank Walsh, or Charles Conaway, or Bernie Ebbers, or Scott Sullivan, in all of this the attention is focused on them. You know where the attention should be focused? You know what we should do with that $90 million house of Gary Winneck's in Bel Air? We ought to take that house and make it into apartments and let the employees at WorldCom live there for free that had their retirements wiped out. And Enron Corporation. Now, you may say, wait a minute, Enron was not that old, or WorldCom was not that old, so how could people lose their retirement; how could people have been working for that company for so long? Well, what happens is WorldCom bought other companies, smaller companies that had employees who had worked there for a long time. They merged these companies together. Do you think any of these retired employees are living in a house like that right now? Do you think they got a square deal? This home is Scott Sullivan's home. If you want to see it, you can see it down in Florida. Why is it built in Florida? Because he can exempt it from the bankruptcy law. I hate to tell Mr. Sullivan this, but it is not going to be exempt from criminal indictments. I hope the U.S. Attorney and the IRS and the INS, and all the people that have jurisdiction over this matter, look at this very carefully. This home ought to be given to the retired people of WorldCom who have lost their entire retirement. Even if it only gives them back a few cents on the dollar, at least there is some equity in that. Where is the equity in a home like that for an individual who has run a corporation into the ground not because they misjudged the product, not because the economy went south on them, but because they committed fraud, because they wanted to enrich themselves. Take a look at Gary Winneck's home. This is a $20 million home. Gary Winneck of Global Crossing has a $90 million home, five times the size of that home. That is what we ought to do with these homes, take them back. We need to grab those assets that were taken improperly from the corporation and return them to the people of the corporation, to the shareholders. Most importantly to try to provide some justice to the retired employees and the employees that lost their jobs. Over the weekend, WorldCom Corporation went into bankruptcy. How many people do you think today working for WorldCom, that still have their job today, are sitting around relaxed in their front room tonight, wondering about their job security? You think they are relaxed about that? They are probably sick at their stomachs. Will I have my job tomorrow? They would have their jobs tomorrow, and I hope they do have their jobs tomorrow, if we had had some integrity in the board room, if we would have had some integrity in the management. WorldCom is an excellent example. Tens of thousands of people, current employees, are worried whether they are going to have a job tomorrow. The head of it, Bernie Ebbers, made sure before the corporation went into a bankruptcy he got a $408 million loan from the board of directors. Now, tell me those board of directors are watching with the fiduciary responsibility on behalf of the employees by loaning Bernie Ebbers, the chief executive officer, $408 million. All of these people that are losing their jobs, these are jobs that did not need to be lost. These are people they were not engaged in the fraud. They were not engaged in self-enrichment. They showed up at work every day at 8, went home at 5, 6, 7. A lot of them put their heart and soul into the company. And a lot of the retired employees cannot rebuild. They are in their 60s. They cannot rebuild. Who is speaking for those people? That is what we have to keep in mind when we take this legislation through. When these individuals are prosecuted, like the Rigas family, with Adelphia Cable, the Rigas family bought their own professional sports team, they took $3.5 billion out of the corporation. We have to make sure that we reach back out and pull that back in, if for no other reason than to help the employees and the retired employees of that company. They deserve more than they have gotten. Well, let me go on. I want to talk jump back up here, because I think it is a good time to go over an inside deal. What I am talking about, when I talk about an inside deal is, remember that I said earlier an inside deal is where you have people inside the corporation, inside the house, so to speak, who have information that people outside the house do not have. Well, the people outside the house are supposed to get it on somewhat of an equal basis so that you have a square deal, so that you have an equal playing field. Here is a good example of a corporation that did a lot of inside dealing, and I think the facts are going to bear out that it involves an awful lot of people, including one well-known individual by the name of Martha Stewart. December 4. Let us look at this. Here is the company, ImClone Systems, Incorporated. What did ImClone do? ImClone's stock went through the roof because ImClone, the President and CEO of ImClone came out and said they thought they had a cure for cancer. The president was Sam Waksal. The president came out, or the CEO, and led people to believe they had a cure for cancer. They thought they did when they went to the FDA, the Federal Drug Administration. They also buddied up with the stock broker, the analyst that was figuring out whether this was a good buy for the buying public. An analyst is supposed to be an outside person. In several of these cases, including WorldCom, you will find out that the outside analyst, a guy named Grubman, and by the way there is an article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal about him today, is supposed to be an outside consultant, but he was actually attending board meetings, yet he was supposed to give some kind of independent analysis. Well, what happened here is the stock was hot because they thought they had a drug that could cure cancer. Well, around December 4, 2001, the Food and Drug Administration officials informed ImClone that the drug was not going to get certified; that they did not believe that the trial tests indicated that the drug really was effective as a treatment against cancer. Now, what do you think is going to happen to the value of the stock when word gets out on the street that the drug is not going to work. Of course the stock is going to good through the floor. But the chief executive officer, the CEO and the other top executives of this company, they found out 2 or 3 days, in fact, several days, they got the hint around December 4 that this drug may not be approved. Now look what happens from September 6 to the 11. All of a sudden the executive officials, as if they got some kind of hunch that fell out of the air, as if they are brilliant strategists, instead of sharing that information with the general public, instead of sharing that information with their employees who had worked so hard for them, instead of following the Securities and Exchange Commission regulations of how this information is disseminated out there, they start selling their stock. From December 6 through December 11, they unload over $5 million in stock. Now, they would like you to think it was a coincidence. December 26, the CEO finds out that, in fact, the FDA is not going to approve the drug and they are going to make the announcement on December 27 or December 28, 2 days later. He immediately transfers $5 million in stock to his daughter. Then what happens? On December 27, he contacts his daughter and she starts selling the stock, because they know the announcement is coming the next day. Then her broker, who is in all of this, happens to also be Martha Stewart's broker, and he contacts Martha Stewart. There is a message that is left for Martha Stewart, and that message is right here: ImClone is going to start trading downward. Now, this broker's name is a guy named Peter Bacanovic, B-A-C-A-N-O-V-I-C, and Bacanovic, it seems, would be the pronunciation, but Peter, we will call him. Peter would like us to think he had this instinct the stock was going to go down. Now, Peter, by the way, was a very close friend and used to work for this corporation and was very tight with the CEO. In other words, every angle you look at any large sale of stock during that period of time by the chief executive officers or the broker or the Martha Stewart, every one of them smacks of inside information. Every one of them. The conflicts are overwhelming in what happened in this particular company. And who got cheated here? The people that got cheated here are the people that did not know. And under our system of corporate governance, we are supposed to have an equal playing field. We are supposed to have a square deal. But that is not what happened. That is a result of inside information. Inside trading information. That is why we here in Congress, on a bipartisan basis, and not following the focus of the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), whose primary focus is to gain 40 seats from the Republicans, our primary focus should be to save these jobs. My primary focus here is to stop this inside trading. My primary focus here is to restore corporate governance credibility. We have lots of people in this country that are shareholders and they are shareholders because they have some faith that these kind of deals should not go on, like what went on with ImClone. And they are not alone. It went on in Global Crossing, it went on in Enron, obviously, it went on with Kmart, Xerox, WorldCom, Sunbeam, Conseco. These shareholders want to know that there is something to clean it up if it goes on and that there is checks and balances, like an independent auditor, unlike the demonstration of Arthur Andersen, that can go in there and tell you it is not happening; that the standards and the credibility of the corporation are intact. That is why I am calling upon my colleagues to act swiftly and firmly to stop this before it spins out of control. As I said earlier in my comments, this is not typical of the average business in this country. Remember, most corporations in this country, by and large, are small businesses, and these small businesses are mom and pop operations and they run good businesses. And the American economic machine is dependent on these businesses. So we cannot just throw out all business. And it would be wrong for us to say all business is bad. It would be like saying all Catholic priests are bad because you have to get rid of a few bad apples. But the fact is if you have a bad apple in the bushel, you better find out where that apple is and you better get rid of it because it ruins the other apples in the bushel over time. This is the opportunity we are presented with today. Our opportunity today is to take these corporations and ensure that we go back to where we are supposed to go. We have plenty of examples, and I want to show a few of them. Here are a few examples. Commonly known names. These companies have bad apples in the bushels. They have bushels of apples that we have to go through and get rid of the bad apples. Let us start with Tyco. That is where the chief executive officer tried to cheat New York State out of sales tax on a few pieces of art and paid himself hundreds of millions of dollars from the corporation. His lawyer, who was supposed to be kind of a check and balance here, his lawyer paid himself $30 million. And this lawyer's name was Mark Belnick. Mark paid himself $30 million in this corporation and then he structured the payments from that corporation in such a way that it would be concealed from the reports that they gave to the public. In other words, he kept two sets of books, one set to enrich himself, the other set for the public to take a look at. Now, WorldCom. We know all about WorldCom. It declared bankruptcy this weekend. How many thousands have lost their jobs? And what is happening to the chief executive officers there? Bernie Ebbers made sure before he resigned, he made sure they agreed to pay him $1.5 million a year for the rest of his life. That is on top of the $408 million loan. The board of directors of that corporation, theoretically representing the interests of the shareholders and the interests of the employees, gave Bernie Ebbers a $408 million loan. How many corporations in the world have ever loaned their chief executive officer anything close to that? K-Mart's chief executive officer was Charles Conaway before they took that company into bankruptcy, and a lot of Members have been in K-Mart. There are a lot of hard-working people, and they do not make big wages. Those people barely get by on the wages that they make. But at the top, that is not the case. Those executives enriched themselves by giving themselves loans from the corporation. But these loans were a little peculiar. The chief executive officer knew what the definition of a loan was, and that is what you pay it. But they wanted to keep the money. So right before they took K-Mart into bankruptcy, they passed a board proclamation forgiving the loans. Xerox Corporation, they overstate their earnings. They cook the books. Arthur Andersen, these are supposed to be the CPAs. That is supposed to be the check and balance in the system. They end up cozying up to the chief executive officer and getting a share of the deal, and it compromises them. It compromises them to the point that things that should have been caught and avoided a long time ago by the auditors were not. We always deal with greed. It is human nature. I do not care what country, what religion it is, you always deal with greed as a fact of human nature. As a check and balance we know that, we know that. That is why we have auditors. I can tell Members, we are going to get people like the Andy Fastows or the Scott Sullivans of WorldCom, but we expect the auditors to catch that. As I look back at these corporate problems, which as I said earlier are limited in nature, but it can spread very, very quickly. If I were to look at one place, the first fire call that came in, the first fire truck that should have picked up the problem, I keep looking at the auditors. I am severely and deeply disappointed by the auditing industry in general, by the accounting industry in general. Remember, Arthur Andersen is not the lone one. In Enron, Waste Management, WorldCom, Sunbeam, Adelphia, Conseco, every one had different auditing firms. The auditing and the accounting industry has got to clean house, and they have to do it themselves and do it quickly. I do not think that auditors should be consultants. I do not think consultants should be the auditors. We have to have that separation. But the fact that the first people that should have picked this up were the auditors and it did not happen, that is an important check and balance. That is Arthur Andersen. Enron is pretty self-explanatory: self-enrichment. A board of directors that has conflicts as far as the eye can see. We have private, secret companies that are paying $30 million to people like Andrew Fastow over a 6-month period, and his buddies made 5 to $10 million a month in little side deals he feeds them. Where does that money come from? Not because Enron figured out a better way to deliver electricity or natural resources for minerals or developed a better product or mouse trap, as the old saying goes, because Enron allowed this fraud to go on; and they were abetted in the fraud by legal counsel and Arthur Andersen. What happens to these people? This is how we solve that problem. They go to jail and when they go past go, they do not collect their money. That is the only way we are going to get this message across. There are other solutions, and I have mentioned a couple. One, the auditors should not be allowed to consult and the consultants should not be allowed to be doing the auditing. But there are some others. We have to look at the board of directors and what kind of conflicts of interest the board has with the company. Enron is a good example, or WorldCom. We have a director at WorldCom who uses a corporate jet. Let me tell Members about a corporate jet. If it is a jet of medium size, let us say it seats 8 to 10 passengers, that jet probably costs $15 million to $20 million, probably costs the corporation, even if it is just sitting, the expenses probably run $100,000 a month; so on a 15 to $20 million jet, it is probably around a million dollars a year. WorldCom on its board of directors makes a deal with one of the board members. We will rent this jet to you, and we have to be fair because that jet does not belong to me, Bernie Ebbers; it belongs to the corporation and that jet is used to move people around. So we cannot just let you use the jet. We are going to lease you the jet. The board of director, just to make it convenient, we will park the jet on a full-time basis at an airport closest to where you live. It costs about $100,000 a month to have this jet; we will lease it to you for $1 a year. That is what happened at WorldCom. Mr. Speaker, we have to have some different standards for our board of directors. Board of directors should not have things that the common sense, the prudent man, the reasonable-man standard would say look, that smells. That is not ethical. Common sense would say it is just not right. I would assume that today in corporate boards throughout America, probably throughout the free world, as well as the executive officers, are probably taking a pretty harsh look at how they handle these issues. I can tell Members there was an interesting editorial the other day in the Denver Business Journal. They wrote about me saying a staunch Republican standing up on business discussing WorldCom and the comments I make. Mr. Speaker, I used to be a police officer, and there used to be a saying out in the police business. The worst thing for good cops is a bad cop, and it is the same thing here. The worst thing for good business is a corrupt business person, somebody who cheats. That is the worst thing we can get. The worse thing for a sport is somebody who cheats. In the short run, your favorite team wins because somebody cheated; but over the long run it hurts the sport and the people participating in it and the people who have participated in it like the retired employees. What else can we do. Clearly, our board meetings should not be open to the stock analysts. The stock analysts, and we can take a look at the stock analysts with WorldCom. We can look at Grubman that is on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal, or the stock analysts which worked with ImClone, that is the one that Martha Stewart is involved with, those people were like they were brothers and sisters with the corporate board. They were like they were hatched in the CEO's office. Those people are supposed to be independent. We heard about some of them. They stand in front of the TV and say, What a wonderful stock. I will give you a little advice, buying public. If you want to ensure your retirement and retire early, buy this stock on its way up. Off the TV camera, they have them sending e-mails, this stock is a sucker. Boy, does this stock stink. Corporations across the country have to move quickly to put a stop to that kind of thing. Does more regulation help? Generally, I am not too sold on more regulation, but I think this has taught us in the government some lessons. We have to tighten up some areas. We should require that options are expensed. Right now, stock options are not. We should require, I think, for example, that auditing and consulting should not be done by the auditing firm. There should be a separation. But the regulation, the loopholes we can close, and we will close a number of them this week thanks to the leadership, and help from both Democrats and Republicans and President Bush, we are going to close some of those loopholes this week. But that is only part of the formula. The other two things for this to work is the industry itself. Business itself, whether it is a mom and pop or a Xerox, they have got to have a self-cleansing. They have to get that bad apple out of the bushel, and they have to do it now. The third thing we have to do, and I will conclude with this, but the third thing that we have got to do is we have got to punish those who have enriched themselves at the expense of others. We cannot allow, for example, Gary Winnick to live in his $90 million home after he took $790 million out of the company. We should not allow Scott Sullivan to bathe in his private pool at his $20 million home he is right now building at the expense of WorldCom employees, at the expense of WorldCom investors and mutual funds across the country. We should take the ill-gotten gains, and that is the buzz word. We must act. Our U.S. Attorney's office should act. The IRS should act. The Security and Exchange Commission should act, and I am confident that they all are; but they must act with haste. They must move quickly, firmly, and constitutionally. I am not saying that we infringe on legal rights. But look at ImClone. There is so much evidence that we need to punish the people. We cannot have a repeat sequence of this. We have to let people know if you are going to lie to the employees and cheat them out of their retirements and cook the books, if you are going to misuse corporate assets and self-enrich yourself, it is not tolerable. We need to go after that kind of behavior. Mr. Speaker, I know that some of my comments appear repetitive, but I am worried about this. There is no reason that our stock market should be dropping like it is. The fundamentals are pretty solid. Our recovery will not be a big boom economy because the recession was not that deep of a recession. The techie stuff, the telecom, that bubble burst; but we are still on the way to a recovery. This market is overselling right now, and one of the factors why it is overselling is because we have to figure out the integrity on corporate governance. It is not the kind of thing that is going to be solved by the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt) claiming that he is going to take 40 seats from the Republicans, and that is why they love this issue and why they are going to focus on it. It is going to be solved by a bipartisan effort from both sides of the aisle along with the Senate and the President by saying here are the regulatory things that need to take place; business, here is what we expect you to do in order to restore credibility to the market. That is what will help stabilize our stock market. In the end, an honest business person is a winner for everybody. We have to remember that because the backbone of our economy is small business and most of what we deal with is small business, not the ones that I just talked about. Let us get rid of the big bad apples in the bushel so the rest of the apples are as good as we know they can be.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to take this opportunity to recognize Dean Dowson of Lakewood Colorado, for his accomplishments and achievements towards the betterment of his community. Dean has contributed greatly to the city of Lakewood, Colorado and is well known as a pillar of the Lakewood business community. In May of 2002 Dean was awarded the ``Minuteman Award'' from the American International Automobile Dealers Association (AIADA), for outstanding political and legislative involvement. He has actively involved himself with Members of Congress, and has pioneered many efforts of the AIADA. Dean has exhibited an unparalleled commitment to his work and has become a pivotal part of the AIADA, aiding an organization that uplifts and reinforces the economy. He has truly excelled in many facets of his job, and continues to improve. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to stand this evening and honor Dean Dowson before this body of Congress and this nation. Thank you Dean for every minute of time you selflessly spent building a strong foundation in our community. Congratulations on your award and good luck in your future endeavors!

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to pay tribute to the life and memory of Donald L. Getz, who has contributed selflessly to the betterment of his community and our society. It is my pleasure to applaud Donald's hard work and to honor his achievements before this body of Congress. Donald was born in October 17, 1931 in Brighton, Colorado where he spent most of his childhood and adolescent years. He was a tremendous athlete, who guided his high school football and basketball teams to the state championship in 1949. Donald enlisted in the United States Navy in 1951, and served this country proudly during the Korean War. His humanitarian efforts during the war earned him respect and honor during his tour of duty. After his service, he returned to Colorado and worked in the trucking. Donald excelled in every aspect of his life, and used his hard work and determination to open the Anchor Bar and Cafe with his wife in 1974. He operated this very successful business until 1989 when he retired. Donald was known for his dedication to his family and is survived by his wife Pat and their three children: Gregory, Todd, and Jill. Donald had two wonderful great grandchildren Katie and Nathan who were his pride and joy. Although his community mourns the loss of a great charitable man, they celebrate his great accomplishments and achievements. Mr. Speaker it is a pleasure to praise the accomplishments to an outstanding individual. I am sure his legacy will live on in the hearts of his community and family. Donald Getz was a man of character and compassion and I take this moment to applaud his character and determination before this distinguished body.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise to pay tribute to the accomplishments of Bob Wallace. It is a great pleasure of mine to honor his hard work and determination, which led to the establishment of the Wallace Oil Company in 1962. Mr. Wallace contributed selflessly to the betterment of his community, which is why he is deserving of our admiration. Bob Wallace graduated from Regis College in Denver, where he was an All-American on the school's basketball team. Following his graduation, he spent 15 months in the Air Force, where he was stationed at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma and was ranked as an All-American in the 1952 AAU Tournament. Mr. Wallace later participated in the Phillips company basketball team, the '66ers,' where he played at least 60 games a season. Mr. Wallace created the Wallace Oil Company in 1962 from nothing more than $15,000 in savings and a loan of $10,000. After fifty years of devotion and hard work, Bob is officially retiring as an independent distributor, although he frequently consults with his sons who now own the company. Mr. Speaker, I stand before you to offer my appreciation to Mr. Wallace for being an outstanding inspiration for the Wallace Oil Company. I wish him the best with all of his future endeavors and applaud the many efforts he has made over the years to provide leadership and guidance to the La Junta community--he is an invaluable citizen! I wish Bob the best of luck in his future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, today I stand before you to celebrate the life and mourn the loss of Ruby Martinez. Mrs. Martinez, a former Councilwoman and Mayor of Boone, Colorado, selflessly committed years towards the development and betterment of her community. After a long battle with cancer, she passed away on June 30, 2002. As we mourn her loss, I would like to pay tribute to her life before this body of Congress and this Nation. At the early age of fourteen, Ruby Martinez began striving for success when she began working the fields to raise money so that she could attend Catholic school. Although her graduation led her to a job in the larger city of Colorado Springs, she selflessly returned to Boone to care for her ailing grandmother who had suffered from a stroke. Her civil involvement began through calling local officials with the intent of organizing local volunteer programs to help the less fortunate and actively address the town's issues and concerns. Once her tenure as Mayor commenced, she created several agencies to improve the lives of her constituents with the Housing and Urban Development agency, which repaired homes for owners who could not find the means to do so themselves. She actively served as a board member of the Pueblo Community Health Board, the Pueblo Chemical Depot Reuse Commission and Chemical Demilitarization Authority, the Sheriff's Advisory Board, and she was the founding member of the Boone-Avondale citizens Alliance. Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to pay tribute to the memory of an exemplary citizen in the State of Colorado. Ruby Martinez was a vibrant woman who achieved much success and was a beacon of inspiration to her entire community. I join her family and a grateful community today in the mourning of her loss.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, to my colleague, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), I am not going to follow up with some comments about your previous comments. In fact, I found the gentleman's comments pretty interesting. This evening I want to spend the time with my colleagues speaking about corporate fraud. I spoke about that at length the other day but, actually, the conversation I wanted to have with my colleagues was cut short by the time. So tonight I wanted to go through it in much more detail at a little slower pace so that we have a pretty clear understanding of what is happening out there in corporate America, with a few bad apples, but these bad apples are so bad they are ruining the bushel of apples. I come from apple country out in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and I can tell my colleagues if we do not track down the bad apple in a bushel of apples, no matter how good the rest of the apples in that bushel are, it will not be very long before the stain from the bad apple begins to go over on the good apples, and pretty soon the whole bushel of apples is ruined. Now, I have heard many of my colleagues recently talk about the corporate fraud that is going on and, remember, it is not all corporations. It does not entail all of the corporations. Keep in mind that there are many, many smaller corporations in America. When we speak of the word ``corporation,'' it is very broad. As I said the other evening, my in-laws are cattle ranchers. They are not big cattle ranchers, but they have a cattle ranch up in the mountains. It has been in their family since the 1880s. They are incorporated for liability purposes. I have a friend who owns an ice cream shop. He has two employees, actually his partner, he and his wife, they are incorporated. So not all corporations fall into this. There are a few corporations that I am going to address specifically by name this evening. There are a couple of corporate executives, thieves, that I am going to address this evening by name; and I hope my colleagues are attentive to this issue. But back to the point that I was making, recently several Members have said that this is like a bank robbery. These guys are bank robbers. I stand to differ with them. These people, like the President of Tyco, or Bernie Ebbers, the President of WorldCom, or Scott Sullivan, the chief financial officer, they are not like bank robbers. I will tell the Members the difference. It is right here on this poster. A bank robber, generally in a bank robbery the person who commits the bank robbery is generally a poor person taking from a rich person. That is not what we have here. What we have with these corporate problems in America today is not a poor person taking from a rich institution, but instead, just the opposite: we have a rich institution taking from the poor people. That is exactly what is happening out there. So when we hear people say, this is kind of like a bank robber, it is just the opposite of a bank robbery. It is the institution taking from the small guy, instead of the poor guy maybe taking from the bank. That is the difference. These people who are dealing with this are not any different than a bank robber, though, as far as how we might describe them otherwise, like two-bit crooks, two-bit hoods. That is exactly what we are talking about here. Let me go over a few things. I think, first of all, the best thing to talk about, I mentioned earlier that, by far, most of the corporations in America are small companies. Most of the companies in America run a pretty good operation. America, by far, has the strongest economy in the world's history. America will continue to have a strong economy. We are going to get through this. In a sense, this is somewhat of a cleansing process. We are cleansing ourselves of the bad apples in the bushel, so to speak. The cleansing process is always painful, but the only way the cleansing process works is that it has to be complete. The only way we save the bushel of apples is to get in there and find the bad apple. We just cannot talk about the fact that we have a bad apple in a bushel of apples. We have to get in there and find out where that apple is and find out if the bruise and the rot in the bad apple has spread to others, and we have to get rid of all of those. That is the duty of our enforcement agencies in this country. It is also the duty, the peer duty of other companies, other chief executives. We have to lift our standards in this country. This kind of behavior demands that other chief executives, the good chief executives, the good people who work hard out there, that deliver a good product on behalf of the company, that are honest with their books, that do not use their attorneys to try to deceive shareholders and employees, that these people demand a higher standard. I know a number of chief executives. I can tell the Members, they pride themselves on the standards that they demand. Their standards exceed all of the standards that some accounting firm may want, or the standards that the law firm says are the minimal standards they must meet. The most successful companies in America are not the companies that perform unethically, or perform right on the border. The successful ones over a long period of time or over the average period of time are the ones that are honest in their dealings with their employees. They are honest in their dealings with their shareholders. They are honest in their dealings with government agencies. They are honest in their dealings in the reports they give to the general public. Those are the companies, those are the businesses in America, in fact, those are the businesses in the world that over the long run will be the most successful and the strongest. Now, I think it is important that we have a good concept of what a corporation is. What makes up a corporation? How does it work? Who is an insider? What are some of the buzz words that are used when we talk about corporations? Of course, the first buzz word we use is ``corporation'' itself. As I said earlier, a corporation really, or corporations in America, are comprised of many, many different sizes of corporations. We can go all the way from General Electric or a Wal-Mart Corporation clear down to the mom and pop ice cream shop in our local community that incorporates generally for tax or liability purposes. So when we hear the word ``corporation,'' do not just apply it to the big corporations and do not just apply it every time we use it in a negative connotation to the bad corporations, like Tyco or K-Mart Corporation. And really, the corporation as a whole was not so bad, but the people who worked within it were rotten apples. We have to be able to segregate the bad from the good because the good deliver us good products. We can take a look at the car we drive, we can take a look at the toothpaste that we brush our teeth with in the morning, the mouthwash, or the cold medicine that we take, or the pen that we write with, the lights, the power that is delivered here, or even the clothes we have on. There are a lot of good products in our country. There are a lot of honest, hardworking people in our country. They are being smeared by the likes of Scott Sullivan in Florida, who right now is building his $19 million mansion, or the likes of Gary Winnick with Global Crossing in California, who is building a $90 million mansion. We can go on and on. Bernie Ebbers. I will go through a lot of these names with the Members because we ought to know the names of the people. We ought to be able to identify what apple in the bushel is bad. Remember the saying: once a crook, always a crook. A crook is a crook is a crook. That is the way it is. We have to call it as we see it. Call a spade a spade; call a crook a crook. I will tell the Members, if we allow a crook to stay in our midst, if we allow a crook to stay and influence what we do, over time we begin to pick up some of those bad habits. After a while, that old saying, you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, it kind of applies to a crook, too. Look at the president of Tyco, the guy who bought millions of dollars in art. He is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but he cheated on a very small part of the art. He decided not to declare it on the sales tax so he could avoid it, save $100,000 here and $100,000 there. To someone worth hundreds of millions of dollars, that is pennies; that is nothing. But to illustrate, that this individual would go to the trouble to cheat the State out of a small amount of State sales tax lets us know that that old saying, you cannot teach an old dog new tricks and once a crook, always a crook, those sayings out there have applicability to some of these individuals. Let us go back and study what the structure of a corporation looks like. A corporation always starts here on the top. It always starts with the shareholders. The shareholders are the fundamental part of a corporation. A corporation really is not recognized as a human being, obviously; it is a legal body that is created by law that allows a group of people, in some States as few as one or two people, in other States it requires more, but it can allow a corporation to be built with just a couple of people who own the shares of the corporation. If it is tightly held, what ``tightly held'' means is a very few people or a family holds that corporation, the stock, the shares in that corporation, and shares and stock being synonymous, and ``closely held'' means maybe it is a little broader than tightly held, maybe you only have 20 shareholders. We have lots of those. For example, my wife and her parents have a family ranch. It is very closely held, tightly held by the family, closely held; and it does not have but maybe, I do not know, 10 or 15 shareholders in that corporation. A lot of corporations, for example, an IBM or a General Electric or a Wal-Mart Corporation, they literally have millions of shareholders, millions of people who want to pool their money together. They entrust their money. They entrust their investment in this corporate entity, in this vehicle, to go out and see if they can make a product upon which there will be demand, which the consumer will want. In turn, those shareholders hope over time, as a result of their investment in this corporate vehicle, that they are going to get paid dividends, that they are going to be able to make money off their investment. But in making that investment, there are certain levels of integrity or trust. Now, we are not fools. We know that we deal with a lot of different people that form these corporations. We know that in any given body of people, whether it is Congress or whether it is the Catholic priesthood or whether it is schoolteachers, once in a while we are going to get a corrupt person in that group. So we do not just leave it to the honesty or integrity of people who form corporations, especially if those corporations are broader than a closely held corporation, if they are publicly traded, broadly traded, as they say. If they are broadly traded, we do not just totally trust them, the government. We do not completely trust them. We mostly trust them, but we do not completely trust them. What we do is require audits. We require public disclosure statements, financial disclosure statements, so that the public has an opportunity to screen very carefully what the audit says or what the financial statements say. It is kind of a check and balance on the chief executives. But in order for that check and balance to work to give protection not only to the shareholders but to the employees and to the people who are affiliated with that corporation, in order for that to work, we have to have honest accountants. Here comes Arthur Andersen. There is a problem with Arthur Andersen. We have to have honest attorneys. Here comes a problem with K-Mart and Tyco Corporation; here comes a problem with Adelphia Cable Systems, where the family themselves stole from the public shareholders almost $3.5 billion, not million, billion dollars. So in order for the whole system, in order for this whole system to work, which I am going to go through, we have to have some honesty. We have to have honesty and integrity from the attorneys. If we happen to have an attorney, like in Tyco Corporation, who pays himself a $20 million or $30 million bonus and breaks it up so he does not have to put it in the public disclosure statement that I referred to, so the shareholders, the check and balance, can determine whether or not the attorney deserved his self-enrichment of 20 or $30 million, if we do not have an attorney who is honest, we ought to have him disbarred. That is the check and balance that tries to keep the legal counsel in check. It did not work with Tyco Corporation. In fact, in Tyco Corporation, the attorney kind of was in bed with the president of the company. The president of the company self-enriched himself with hundreds of millions of dollars, and the same thing with the attorney. We are going to see the same thing in something called ImClone, ImClone, the Martha Stewart case. We are going to get into that in a little detail. That is where I am going to describe inside deals. But let me go back to the corporate structure. So we have the shareholders. A shareholder could own one share. For example, I may own one share of BankOne, a very reputable company out there. I do not know what their shares, let us say it is $24. So you could own one share, or be a mutual fund that owns hundreds of thousands of shares. Now, 10 or 15 years ago, 20 years ago, very few people, as a percentage of the whole of society, owned stock. The average person on the street did not invest in stock. But that has changed significantly over the last few years. One, we now have many more people that have retirement funds, called mutual funds, or 401(k)s with their company, or they form some other type of retirement vehicle. That money is pooled, and believe it or not, a lot of people out there who do not think they own stock, in fact, they indirectly do own stock because their retirement fund, their 401(k) or their mutual funds, actually are stockholders. They hold stock on your behalf. So today we have many, many more people invested in 401(k)s, et cetera. Therefore, we have many, many more people who now own stock. We have also seen a surge of interest in the stock market, especially during the boom years. We now have a lot of people we would never imagine buying stock who would figure out the best stock to buy down at the local barber shop. We had a boom. That boom, that big bubble, has burst. What I am trying to get at here is that we have lots of people who are now reliant on a credible corporate structure. We have more people in this country today dependent upon the integrity and the honesty and the strength of the corporate structure in America than we have ever had in the history of this country. That is why it is important that, one, we recognize not every corporation is corrupt. We have a lot of good companies that produce good products out there: the toothpaste, the car, the electric blanket, you name it. But that is why it is so important that we find the corporations like Tyco, ImClone, or K-Mart, or some of these others, Enron Corporation, WorldCom, Waste Management, Adelphia, Conseco. That is why we have to clean house on these. When I say clean house, I mean clean house. We cannot just sit back here and treat these people like they have not done something wrong. Keep in mind, in America, if you steal a car off a shopping center parking lot, and even though that car is only worth $50, and somebody turns you in to the police, when the police stop you, they do not stop you with one police car and one police officer. They stop you with a number of police officers. A number of police officers surround you. They pull you out of the vehicle at gun point for stealing this $50 car. They put you on the pavement. And while you are laying down on the pavements they handcuff you. They then put you in a police car, in a cage in the police car and they haul you to the police department. Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom or Gary Winnick of Global Crossing, Gary Winnick is currently residing in his $90 million home in Bel Air, California. He has never felt handcuffs. Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom went to the board of directors and borrowed $408 million and neither he nor those board of directors have ever had the feel of handcuffs around their hands. Our society has got to give them that feeling because if they do not get that feeling of handcuffs, we are not going to get the feeling of credibility. We are not going to get the feeling that our system is working, that the checks and balances are in place. So it is just as important to society that appropriate and tough punishment be meted out as it is to our own feeling of, well, they deserved this punishment as it is to fairness. You go into a Kmart and you steal a candy bar, you will suffer a lot more penalty under the criminal law than the chief executives of Kmart who loan themselves millions of dollars, and then the week before the company was taken into bankruptcy, got the loans forgiven by corporate documents. In other words, you do not have to pay it back. You sign it. Self-serving. And then they took the company into bankruptcy. Remember, we are not just talking about shareholders. There is another group up here that hurts a lot, that has suffered a lot as a result of the Enron and the WorldComs and the Tycos and the people of Global Crossing and the companies like that. That is the ones clear at the bottom of the list, but probably the most important box on the list, and that is the employees. And not just the active employees. Do not forget we have retired employees. So there really should be another box right here. The retired employees. Some who have given their entire careers to these corporations, and now they find themselves out on the street. WorldCom, who bought company after company and assumed those employees, now those employees are out on the street. This company will declare bankruptcy this week or early next week. These retired employees will find their pensions wiped out. The same with Global Crossing. How do you think the employees of Global Crossing feel today? They have been wiped out and Gary Winnick is living in a $90 million mansion, currently being remodeled because he thinks it needs upkeep, in Bel Air, California. Or Scott Sullivan, the 40-year- old guy who shows up in Congress chuckling while we are interviewing him while his $20 million home on the ocean or lakeside is currently under construction in Florida. You think he gives a hoot about these retired employees? You think he gives a hoot about the current employees? These people have broken the trust of America and these people should pay the price. They should not be allowed to live the rest of their life in the luxury of a king and in the mockery of a justice system. Let me go back to how this corporation is made up. We have talked about our shareholders. The corporation would not exist without the shareholders. Now the shareholders entrust their money and they give their money, they put their money into the corporation. And then you have gotten the corporation, a group of individuals who represent the best interests of the corporate entity as a whole, who look out for the shareholders, who have responsibility for guidance of the corporation, not day-to-day guidance of the corporation, but overall policy, overall direction of the corporation. And these people have what is described as a fiduciary duty. What does fiduciary duty mean? It means a special duty, a special obligation to the people that you are representing. More than just, okay, I will do it for you. It is a special level of trust. It is a higher standard, and that is what these boards of directors do. I can tell you any time you find one of those overpaid executives, any of these corporations you would find in trouble whether it is Enron, TYCO, ImClone, whether it is Waste Management, whether it is Xerox Corporation, Sunbeam Corporation, any of these in trouble, you will find trouble in the board of directors. You will find a breach of fiduciary duty with those boards of directors. Either they fell asleep on the job or they were lulled asleep by the management that bestowed them with gifts. For example, in WorldCom, Bernie Ebbers made sure that one of his board of directors was given a corporate jet which probably costs the corporation $200,000 a month, but he decided to lease it at an arm's length transaction, a fair transaction. So he let the director lease it for a dollar a year, and all the expenses were paid. Do you think that director has got a fiduciary duty? Do you think he is representing the shareholders or the best interest of that corporation, or do you think he is representing the best interest of Bernie Ebbers of the WorldCom Corporation? It is clear he has breached his trust. That is why this part right here, these boards of directors, that is very, very important. Every box in here is important for the corporation to work correctly. Every box in here has an integral part, a basic and fundamental part of the company. This vehicle cannot move forward effectively if any of the people in these boxes have corrupted the box. For example, if you have corrupt shareholders, this corporation will not work. It will not be a good corporation. If you have a corrupt board of directors, we have seen what has happened with Enron or these others. If you have corrupt legal counsel, corrupt auditors like Arthur Andersen, corrupt president like the president of Tyco or the president of ImClone, the inside deals, or if you have a management team that is corrupt, it will not work, or employees that steal from the company, if you have employees that are corrupt. Every box in here has to work; and if it works, it is a very powerful economic machine. If it does not work, it is a complete failure or close to it. It can cause an implosion, and that is what you are seeing with some of these companies. You are seeing an implosion with WorldCom. You have seen an implosion with Xerox. You have seen an implosion with some of these and it is because of defective management in a large degree. So we talk about the board of directors. The board of directors does not go to work every day. They are generally retired executives, men and women, prominent in their communities, but they are supposed to be qualified on that board. They were not supposed to be on there for celebrity status. They are not supposed to be on there to be yes people. They are supposed to be on there for the best interest of the shareholder and of the corporation. And for some reason, that has been diluted. In my opinion, the long-term solution for this, one of the key parts of that is that we have got to professionalize our boards of directors across this country. We have to increase the standards and the behavior that we expect from them, which also means we have to increase the punishment if the board goes bad, if they become corrupt. So now we go and we have got our legal counsel. I have referred to our legal counsel a little. You should not have an attorney who gives you the advice that you want to hear. A good attorney will give you the advice regardless of what you want to hear. And what happens here, unfortunately, and Tyco is the excellent example, the attorney goes to work for Tyco. He got his job as a personal favor from the president of the company. The president of the company is a guy that cheats on his sales tax even though he makes tens of millions of dollars every year. And the lawyer here decides to cozy up in bed as well, so what he does is start to pay himself bonuses. Now, remember that the board of directors issues reports that go out to the shareholders. They issue reports that go out to the public, and they issue reports that are read all the way down this system. In Tyco what happened is the legal counsel made sure that the bonus he got of $20 or $30 million was broken up and titled in such a way that it would never have to show up in any of these reports. So the employees did not know what the attorney was paying himself. The board of directors, theoretically, did not know what he was paying himself. Certainly the shareholders did not know what he was paying himself. It was what is called a sweetheart deal. Now, you also have the auditors over here. And you saw the same thing with Enron. That is the excellent example of Enron Corporation. With Enron what you did is you had Arthur Andersen in the morning, and keep in mind it is not just Arthur Andersen, but you had Arthur Andersen in the morning being your auditor, telling you whether or not your books were clean and whether or not they had been cooked, and in the afternoon offering to you a much more lucrative contract for themselves doing consulting. We have got to break apart auditing firms that offer auditing at this time and consulting at this time. They are two separate functions, and they should be handled by two totally independent, unaffiliated units for it to work effectively. What happened with Arthur Andersen, they got too cozy with the management at Enron. These accountants, these CPAs out there making 100,000 or 90,000, they could not resist the temptation to make several hundred thousand like the executives at Enron. So when the executives at Enron or the board members that were corrupt at Enron came over to the accountants and said, here is what we want this report to the public to look like, the auditors for their own self-enrichment say, we can make it work. We can hide those numbers. And that is exactly what they did at WorldCom. At WorldCom they took their expenses that should have been put in the expense column and they capitalized them so it looked like they were making more profits. And this was done with the assistance of their auditing team. And, in turn, they had stock options that went up in value because the stock price was high because the public, the shareholders and the public that wanted those shares thought the company was making money when, in fact, it never made money. It never made any kind of money. They threw out these corrupt corporate executives or these board members threw out a line. They got the auditors to bite on the bait. They pull in the auditors, then they throw in another line. They pull in the legal counsel and then, of course, pretty soon they say we have enough. Now, let us see what kind of suckers are out there. The first suckers they go after are the shareholders. They suck in the shareholders, and then the people that suffer the worst at the bottom are the employees. People that have worked for these companies for years, for decades. What is left of their future is decimated. Their life savings is gone. It is pretty hard to stomach this. It is pretty hard to look at how much these employees of WorldCom or Enron or Kmart or Tyco or ImClone, it is hard to stomach what has happened to these people's savings, to their pensions, when people like Scott Sullivan are living in a $20 million brand new mansion in Florida or Gary Winnick of Global Crossing is living in a $90 million mansion in Bel Air, California, all at the expense of these employees and of these shareholders. Self-enrichment. Inside deal. Inside knowledge. Now, what do I mean by inside knowledge? You know, to run a corporation, your executive officers have certain information that is obviously confidential. They have information that would impact the corporation. They cannot, for example, if they are negotiating to buy some property across the street, they do not want to release publicly about what price they are willing to pay for that. They keep that inside the company's information. And it is for obvious reasons. They keep it. And that is perfectly legal. That is called inside information. But what is not legal is when these executive officers, this management team or these boards of directors use that confidential inside information for their own self-enrichment. And I will give you the perfect example of it. I have it laid out right here for you. It is a company. Many of you have never heard of ImClone Systems, Incorporated, but you have heard a case affiliated with it called Martha Stewart. She is tied into this little deal. Let us take a look at what ought to be a textbook example for every college business book that is published for study, a textbook example of corruption at the core, of the misuse, and the breach of fiduciary duty by your corporate officers. Here is what happens. ImClone has a president, and the president of the corporation finds out December 4, remember the dates. They are important. On my poster, this is the key date right here. Lots of these corporate officers, including the president, the vice president, the legal attorney, the vice president for marketing, they hold a lot of stocks. They hold a lot of options on shares of stocks. Now they are about to get information that the public will not have access to for several days. Now under the rules of law, they are not to share this information with anybody because it gives one person an unfair advantage. Our stock market works out there, our investment market works because theoretically both parties have an equal advantage at least going into it. And they then negotiate and they bargain. But you cannot have a system that works correctly when one party has inside information and using it inappropriately, the other side can never get a fair deal. There is no square deal on something like that. And ImClone was not about to give anybody a square deal, except the inside people. Here is what happened. December 4, FDA officials meet privately with the ImClone vice president and informally and probably improperly, but informally signaled that the company's cancer drug could have licensing problems. So on December 4, an FDA official, and again, I am not sure this was proper what this official told, but he hinted or dropped the hint, hey, your drug, which this company has built itself upon, is in serious trouble. It may not get its license. You guys may be in real trouble. What happens? Look what happens. You think that they go public with this information? No. You think they are going to go out to the average John or Jane on the street that owns stock, that trusts this management, you think they go to the board of directors? They may, by the way, have gone to the board, but do you think they go to the employees who work so hard to make this a success and say we have got some information, you need to be aware this stock may collapse? No, they do not do that. These people are corrupt. They are going to use that to self-enrich themselves. Here is the sequence of things that happen. December 6, two days later, their attorney, and remember, I told you how important it is that you have legal counsel that has integrity, that has capability and knows the rules of law when it comes to corporate governance. So what happens on December 6? This attorney, their general attorney, general counsel the title they use, unloads $2.5 million worth of ImClone stock. Cannot wait to sell. Two days after that information gets to him, he drops the stock. What a wonderful timing. What a coincidence, what a hunch. Must be a very brilliant guy in the stock market. December 11, ImClone vice president Ronald Martell sells another two- point-some-million dollars' worth of ImClone stock. On December 26, now we are jumping to December 26, a very key date right here, here is the CEO, this guy, in my opinion, is as big a two- bit crook as you have ever seen in the history of this country. This guy was called the general attorney, now the general counsel. He has already sold his stock because he knows the news is coming. He spends 17 minutes on the phone with the CEO, Sam Waksal, the president. Here is what he does. He spends 17 minutes on the phone with the president. The president then drafts a note, and on the note he marks ``urgent, immediate attention required,'' and he sends it to his broker, to the broker that holds the president's, this guy, he sends it over to his personal broker, this note, urgent, immediate attention required. Then what he does is he knows that in the next couple of days, on December 27 or December 28, I guess it is December 28, there is going to be an announcement that ImClone's drug is not going to get licensed by the FDA, and he knows that their stock price will implode. It will collapse. So he immediately calls his broker, and he knows that if he sells the stock in his name, it is going to be pretty obvious he had inside information. So he transfers 4.5 million shares or $4.5 million, I cannot remember which, into his daughter's name and says to his daughter, sell the stock quick. What happens to the daughter? She turns around and sells her stock. She has got over $2 million or $3 million worth of stock. She attempts to sell her father's stock in her name, but Merrill Lynch says no, something is fishy here, we are not going to let you sell that 4 million shares, but we will let you sell your shares because maybe you are like the attorney and the marketing guy and like some of the other executive officers, you just know how to read the stock market, just timing, just a coincidence that you had such a hunch that this stock was going to implode. Do not forget now they have got buddies out there. They do have a couple of close friends. One of their close friends is this broker at Merrill Lynch. What does this broker at Merrill Lynch do? He calls somebody named Martha Stewart. What does Martha Stewart do? He leaves a message to Martha Stewart. This is before the general public knows of the inside information that is going on. The Merrill Lynch broker calls Martha Stewart, and the message he leaves her is ImClone is going to start trading downward, ImClone is in trouble, in other words, but the exact quote is, ``ImClone is going to start trading downward.'' What happens? Martha Stewart immediately sells almost $300,000, I think it is within a few minutes sells $300,000 approximately worth of her stock. What happens? Next day, the announcement comes out. ImClone stock almost becomes worthless. Who loses on the deal? Well, the shareholders of ImClone lose in a big way unless you happen to be on the inside. The employees of ImClone lose in a big way. The retired employees of ImClone get their pension plans, their retirements, all get wiped out. Who comes out of it smelling like a rose? The two bit-crook comes out of it smelling like a rose. Some of the board members come out of it. The president of the company, the president's daughter and people like Martha Stewart, who by coincidence just happened to know the right day to sell. These are the kind of deals that are putting a black eye on business in America. These are the kind of deals that are shading the honest people. These are the kind of bad apples in the bushel we have got to dig down and we have got to find it, and I will tell you it is not just with this ImClone Corporation. Let me just give you a quick demonstration. Enron Corporation, I do not need to talk much about that. We know about the corruption that went on at Enron Corporation, and take a look at the problems they had on their board of directions at Enron Corporation. Not one of those executives has yet had the feeling of handcuffs on their wrists. Keep that in mind next time you go to the grocery store or the shopping center. You might see somebody that stole a 95 cent candy bar and they have got handcuffs on their wrists, but nobody at Enron did. Take a look at Arthur Andersen, completely breached their duties, not the whole corporation. There were a lot of good people that worked in that, but the whole corporation was dependent on their executive officers who were supposed to have integrity and honesty, but they got reeled in. They cast out there and the executives reeled them in, said, come on, we will cut you in on the deal. Arthur Andersen. Xerox Corporation overstates their sales, tried to deceive the shareholder. Kmart Corporation goes out and loans its chief executive officers and several of the executive officers millions of dollars a couple of weeks before they know they are going to declare bankruptcy; and the week before they declare bankruptcy, the chief executive officers sit down and write a statement to themselves, dear self, the money that we had you loan from Kmart is now forgiven, signed self. That is what happened here. I know people that worked at Kmart. You know stores of Kmart that have closed. They are trying to make it. They are still trying to make it go. There are a lot of people. These are blue collar workers, a lot of them. These are not wealthy people. It is like I said at the beginning of my remarks, this is not a bank robbery going on here because keep in mind, the bank robbery, it is generally a poor person trying to rob from a rich institution. These are wealthy institutions trying to rob from poor people; and at Kmart they were successful, lots of retired employees there that made maybe five, six bucks an hour who had just a few hundred dollars a month. They do not have a $90 million dollar mansion like Gary Winnick with Global Crossing. They get wiped out, these people, and they are not 20-year-old kids that have a lot of life ahead of them. They are 50-, 60-, 70-year-old people that are dependent upon their pension after 30 years with Kmart. Take a look at WorldCom, Tyco Corporation. Take a look at ImClone. That is the one that we took, and I have got more charts. I could tell you about more and more of them. I have got back here Adelphia Corporation. There the executive officers bought their own sports team, built their own private golf course for $20 million, managed to siphon $3.5 billion, not million, billion off the corporate books. Where were the auditors? Where was the attorney? Where was the corporate board of directors? They stole that money. They are probably playing golf today, and we have more examples like that. Waste Management, Sunbeam which was caught several years ago, Global Crossing. There is a little game called Monopoly out there, and I am not trying to be cute here. I am serious as I can be. In that game you could pull a card, and if you get in trouble, you could pull a card. You know what that card says, ``Go to jail, and as you pass go, do not collect your $200.'' What I worry about here is that people like Gary Winnick, people like the head of Tyco, people like Scott Sullivan, and by the way, if you have not seen it, this is Scott Sullivan's $20 million palace currently under construction on Lakeside in Florida. These people should not only ought to go to jail. They should not collect the money on the way to jail. These proceeds were taken from the employees of that corporation. These proceeds were taken from the shareholders who trusted the management team of that corporation. There is a solution, and our solution is kind of multistage. The first step in the solution for getting this is to keep in mind that the whole system has not imploded. I would say that a very small fraction of the system is in trouble, but your body may be cancer-free and you may have just a little tiny bit of cancer on your big toe. If you do not catch that cancer for a while, most everything is going fine; but if you ignore that cancer on your toe, pretty soon it may go up your leg and then pretty soon it will kill you. Now we have discovered it on our toe. Now is the time to act. Keep in mind that we do not need to pull out a gun and shoot ourselves because most of our body is in fine shape and we are going to be able to remove that cancer. If we remove it and if we act aggressively and if we dig deep enough, we can get that cancer off and we will be fine. So it is no use destroying your body. Keep in mind, most of your body is working well, but you have got to act aggressively against the problem you have got on that foot. It is the same thing here. The second step, we have got to aggressively pursue these crooks. A crook is a crook is a crook; and a crook that steals from the poor, a crook that steals from the working population in this country, a crook that steals from anybody ought to be punished. The days of our society, of these people being allowed to live in these kinds of mansions after we know they took the money or the ImClone people and I do not care how popular they are. It may be Martha Stewart. I admire Martha Stewart. She built her empire from nothing. She is a hardworking lady but she made a big mistake, in my opinion. She dealt on inside information, information that the little guy was not entitled to, but the law says the little guy is entitled to. These people have broken the law, and these people should be punished. If we do not punish these people, if we do not go aggressively after these people, then we begin to lose the integrity and the credibility that we are going to be able to get that cancer off our foot, and then we do have the risk of our entire system imploding. That is a long way off because I am confident, especially under the President's statements of the last couple of weeks, under action take on this floor, under action taken on the other body's floor and the compromise that we will eventually come up with, we are going to go after them; but we need our local prosecutors to go after them. We need the Internal Revenue Service to go after them. We need the Securities and Exchange Commission to go after them. There is no reason any agency that has any kind of jurisdiction over these individuals should not pursue these people as aggressively as they would pursue a two-bit thief that walks out of one of these companies with a pen or a candy bar or calculator that they have stolen. I have been pretty emotional with this speech because I feel deeply about it. I feel a lot of people have gotten cheated; and I know I have said it time and time again, but it is not a bank robbery. It is not poor people trying to steal from the rich. These are a very few people who are very wealthy who acted in a very self-serving, very selfish method for one purpose and that was to enrich themselves at the expense of somebody else; and in these particular cases, the people that have done this were already wealthy. It was not like they needed to get wealthy. It was not like they needed to take bread home to their kids. These people were already wealthy. They just did not have enough so they decided to cheat the system, and the people they cheated are the people that do not have enough. They are the people that have had their pensions wiped out; that have had their dreams wiped out; that have had their jobs eliminated. Those are the people that are suffering, and the people who have invested in these shares and the American dream. Those are the people that are suffering, and we ought to right the wrong. It is dependent on us, colleagues, to right that wrong, and we are going to have this opportunity. So once again I call for prosecutors across the country, for the IRS, for the SEC, for Congress, the President has already shown his aggressiveness on this, we need to come together and we need to bring down the hammer and we need to bring it down hard so that people know that the American business system is a credible system that works on integrity. If we can do that, we will restore the economic strength of our business machine. We have to have that for this country to continue its greatness.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Sergeant Tony Lombard of the Denver Police Department and thank him for his extraordinary contributions to his community and to his state. As a resident of Denver, Colorado, Tony has dedicated himself to protecting the Denver community by selflessly devoting his time and energy to his job, his family, and his community. His remarkable twenty-nine years on the force serve as a symbol of the commitment that Tony feels for the Denver Police department and the City of Denver. As we celebrate the accomplishments of this fine career, let it be known that I, along with the people of Colorado, applaud his efforts and are eternally grateful for all that he has done for his community. Throughout his career, Tony served as a spokesman and legislative lobbyist for the Denver Police Department. He has also worked as an active member in the narcotics division and credits his wife, Cynthia for always understanding his absence when work required him to leave church, movies, parties, and family dinners. As a former police officer, I understand Mr. Lombard's frustration and tolerance. Moreover, his goodhearted interests have further served to set him apart in his community, and have earned him much respect throughout the Denver Police Department. Throughout the course of his career, Tony served in the sex-crimes unit and also worked for several years with his father in the public information office. Together, they comprised the only father-son spokesman team in the department's history. Tony is retiring because he wants to pursue other avenues of work such as working with the Police Protective Association. Mr. Speaker, it is clear that Tony Lombard is a man of unparalleled dedication and commitment to his job, his community and his family. It is his commitment to hard work, as well as his spirit of integrity and selflessness with which he has always conducted himself that I wish to bring before this body of Congress. Sgt. Tony Lombard has served his state and his country in an honorable manner, and it is my privilege to extend to him my sincere congratulations on his retirement and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the contributions of Garry MacCormack to the Pueblo, Colorado community. After providing thirty years of quality telecommunication service to the community, Garry is retiring to spend more time with his family. Garry has played a vital role in the development of the Pueblo telecommunications community and I can think of no better way to celebrate Garry's retirement than to thank him for his service before this body of Congress, and this nation. Rye Telephone Company was started by Garry's parents in the 1950s when they purchased the neighborhood telephone cooperative. Garry took over the reins of the business in 1974, and as telecommunication advancements evolved, so to has the Rye Telephone Company. The company has matured from offering a single phone with long distance to the community, to the current telecommunications amenities such as multiple lines, voicemail, and Internet service to three states. Garry has nurtured the company through some amazing times, like installing fiber optic lines, and will now pass the family legacy over to his daughter, Michelle. Mr. Speaker, as Garry enjoys his retirement with his wife Dayle, I am confident the company will continue to grow and prosper under Michelle's direction. Garry's success story serves as a model example of hard work and perseverance for a member of the community and I am honored to represent him and his family before you today. Thanks for all your years of service to Pueblo, Garry, and I wish you all the best in your well-deserved retirement.