Collins opposed the Corporate

Accountability Conference Report (H.R. 3763) which passed the House of

Representatives on a vote of 423-3.

"This bill is politics,

pure and simple. Congress has heard the demand to do something about the

fraud and corruption in business, and they just jumped on the first bill

that came along," said Collins. "Don't get me wrong, those who

defraud their investors need to be prosecuted and if convicted, thrown

in jail for a long time. This is already occurring. Those executives who

have committed fraud are being investigated and prosecuted. They need

to be prevented from ever serving on another board of directors, but we

already have the means to do that."

While Collins applauded many

of the measures contained in the bill, such as auditor independence, tougher

penalties, and preventing analyst conflict of interest, he has concerns

with creating an additional layer of bureaucracy.

"What you're going to

have when there is a failure by the SEC oversight committee created to

oversee the business community is a committee to oversee the committee

to oversee the overseers? We already have the SEC, let's give them tools

to do a better job and let the market continue to make corrections,"

said Collins.

The corrections Collins was

talking about, which are already occurring, include boards reviewing their

accounting practices, creating checks and balances in their processes,

and the dismissal and prosecution of corrupt CEO's and CFO's. In addition,

previously passed legislation and regulations already provide many of

the protections covered in the bill, including black-out periods for company

directors, and pension plan protections.

"This bill goes too far.

It criminalizes speculation and risk. It creates a disincentive for corporate

investment. It threatens the economy and jobs.

It is a political knee-jerk

in an election year. I don't vote to pass bad legislation so that I may

return home and tell the people of the Third Congressional District of

Georgia 'look what I did for you' and I am not about to start now,"

Collins said. "Good policy makes good politics, you just have to

make sure that you put the good of the people and the nation ahead of

the politics."