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CNN Live Today
Washington Seeks to Punish Corporate Lawbreakers
Aired July 25, 2002 - 10:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Washington, lawmakers are racing toward a creation of a new law that would underline criminal penalties for corporate officers who cook the books and use fraudulent accounting. This bill is designed to reassure gun-shy investors and faces some speedy passage later today in the House with a glowing endorsement coming from the Bush administration. CNN's Senior White House Correspondent John King checks in. He's got the bottom line on all of this for us.
Good morning -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Leon.
Already here at the Bush White House, they are making plans for a big bipartisan signing ceremony next week. The president will sign that corporate responsibility legislation that, as you noted, a compromise now reached between the House and Senate. It is expected to quickly pass the Congress by overwhelming margins in the next couple of days.
When President Bush signs it here at the White House next week, he hopes to send a reassuring signal to investors and to Americans across the country that Washington reacted quite quickly to word and stories of corporate scandals and corruption and is doing more to make sure those events won't happen again in the future. As that debate folds out, the administration also trying to take steps to reassure the American people that it has a hands-on management of this economy, if you will.
The Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was to be out of the country. He postponed that trip to stay here during the Congressional debate about corporate corruption. And in a speech here in Washington this morning, Secretary O'Neill saying, yes, people might turn on the television set and hear dire warnings and see these tumultuous days on Wall Street. Secretary O'Neill saying, though, that Americans should not be worried, that in his view, the overall economy is doing quite well.
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PAUL O'NEILL, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: We face problems. We deal with them, and we move on. In the end, confidence comes not from the talking heads on the television, but from the fundamentals. And the fundamental strength of our economy is good.
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KING: Again, Mr. Bush planning to sign that legislation here at the White House next week. It has new jail terms for any corporate CEOs found to deliberately cook the books. It also has a new board set up to oversee corporate accounting, an oversight board, if you will. Mr. Bush initially opposed some of those provisions, especially that new, very strong investigative accounting board. But this legislation now has enormous political momentum, despite some disagreements with what's in it. The president will sign it here next week.
He hopes that puts behind him the big debate over will Washington respond at the White House. They also hope it puts behind them the political debate about whether Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney can lead the charge for corporate reform, if you will, because of their own business backgrounds -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, John, as you know, the polls are showing there's lots of skepticism out there among the public about all that and where the White House stands. Now, we've seen here that the Treasury secretary has changed his plans. He's not traveling. How about President Bush? He's got a big vacation coming up. Is he changing his plans with that?
KING: Well, just like last summer, this is called a working vacation by the White House. Mr. Bush will be in Crawford, Texas, at his ranch for most of the month of August. But he will use that for some downtime. Make no mistake about it. He wants a vacation. But he will also take a number of day trips and other trips around the country, some of that geared toward the November elections trying to help Republicans.
Mr. Bush's theme, as it now stands at the White House, was mostly to talk about national security, the future of the war on terrorism, with an emphasis on Homeland Security here in the United States. But White House aids say those plans will be adjusted somewhat. And make no mistake about it, yes, Mr. Bush will be at the ranch in Crawford, but consider it just a base of operations. He will be traveling the country, and he'll be talking quite a bit about the economy.
HARRIS: All right. Good deal. Thanks -- John. John King at the White house.
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