Re: Support the Anti-Scofflaw Regulation

[Neil Tangri <ntangri@essential.org>]

Hi Jon,

I agree with your observations that most of the biggest corporate abusers
are so tightly locked into the US government that this measure -- or any
other single measure -- is not going to uproot them. The problem is, with a
government that is so corrupt, no measure is going to function perfectly.
So what option do we have? Give up on laws? Clearly, whenever you're
talking about legislation, you're talking about doing the best you can
within a compromised situation to make it somewhat less compromised. 

First of all, don't forget that most lawbreaking corporations are not
Monsanto, RJR or WMX: there are plenty of small, medium and biggish
companies that routinely violate worker safety laws, environmental
discharge regulations, fair lending practices, etc. etc. These are the
companies that threaten most Americans' well-being on a daily basis, and
they don't have the political clout to buy off the administration. So I
think this might actually be effective in going after them.

For the really big ones, of course, we have a problem on a different scale.
But from my understanding (and I"m not a lawyer), this bill would give us a
nice big stick with which to go after them. It would make some of the
revolving door activities in DC not only unethical but actually illegal.
Now, of course, making a law doesn't mean that it will be enforced; but it
does raise the costs to the corporations -- and the risks of getting caught.

As Bill Sanjour says, the best tools are not those wielded by the
government but by citizens. This isn't such a law, but it may well be a
stepping stone to that kind of law. If we can establish that the government
can't do business with lawbreaking corporations, then our next task will be
to demand that citizens, not government bureaucrats, draw up the list of
who is a lawbreaker. But we have to take things one step at a time -- all
laws are imperfect, but we can't just wait around until someone comes up
with a perfect one. I'm shocked that we got something this good out of this
administration -- and I think we should make hay while the sun shines.

Neil