Mr. Speaker, last year my colleagues and I on the conference committee for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act sent to the President a bill that included tough new criminal penalties for corporate malefactors. I think at that time we took a number of steps that were important. We drastically increased the sentencing guidelines for securities fraud, for document shredding, for mail and wire fraud. I think Congress provided a strong deterrent for many white-collar criminals that would misrepresent the true financial health of their companies.

By passing this legislation, I think we send a serious message to Wall Street and to Main Street that these corporate criminals would be dealt with as harshly as other criminals. I think today Congress has the opportunity to finish the task of preventing corporate malfeasance by agreeing to pass this bill, H.R. 975. This bill may not have everything we want in terms of how it is phrased, but included in this bill I think is a sensible provision that sharply limits to $125,000 the homestead exemption that many CEOs and corporate officers have used to shield their assets from creditors after they plunder their shareholders' wealth. This is in cases where someone has committed securities law violations or other bad acts, and I think by empowering the government to go after the ill gotten gains that corporate officers who break the law and then tie up those assets in offshore mansions at the expense of parishioners who have been swindled, I think this is an important addition to the law.

Also, this bill prohibits people convicted of felonies like securities fraud from claiming an unlimited exemption when filing for bankruptcy, and I think that protects taxpayers from having to bear the cost of corporate collapses like Enron and WorldCom; and I think it also guards against fraud and abuse by requiring that high-income debtors who have the ability to repay a significant portion of their debts do so, preventing them from sticking responsible borrowers with their tab in the long run.

It accomplishes all of this while preserving the ability of people who truly need to discharge their debts to do so. For far too long, Americans who have worked hard and paid their bills have been held accountable for their debts but also by debts incurred by those who irresponsibly file for bankruptcy; and I think this long-overdue legislation will reform the critically flawed bankruptcy process and prevent affluent filers from gaming the system and passing on their bad debts to hard-working families, while preserving the ability of people who truly need to discharge their debt through bankruptcy to do so.

Bankruptcy should be preserved as a last resort for those who truly need the protections that the bankruptcy system has to offer, not a tool for those who could pay their debts, but choose to discharge them instead. By agreeing to this legislation, Congress will make the existing bankruptcy system a needs-based one and correct a flaw in the current system that encourages people to file for bankruptcy and walk away from debts regardless of whether they are able to repay any portion of what they owe, and it does this while protecting those who truly need protection.

So I commend my colleagues for their hard work on this legislation, and I strongly urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this report and help honest taxpayers by closing the loopholes in the current bankruptcy system.