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Congressmen Cohen and Conyers Announce Legislation to Crack Down on Corporate Bankruptcy Abuses

September 25, 2007

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) joined House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and other members of the Judiciary Committee in introducing the “Protecting Employees and Retirees in Business Bankruptcies Act of 2007.” The bill seeks to protect workers and retirees when corporations file for bankruptcy and make it more difficult for the companies to use bankruptcy as a way to gut workers' wages and benefits. Representatives from the AFL-CIO and workers' unions also attended the press conference.

Congressman Cohen stated, “The bankruptcy laws have been corrupted by the previous Congress, straying from the law’s original intent to help citizens who had fallen on hard fiscal times. When workers pay the price while executives walk away with huge settlements, we must step up to reiterate what President Franklin Roosevelt expressed so well: ‘The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much: it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.’”

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Contact:

Marilyn Dillihay, Press Secretary, (202) 225-3265

Susan Sowell, Executive Assistant (901) 544-4131