mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman from california for yielding me this time and for the leadership that he has shown on the issue .  i also commend the gentleman from new york ( mr. nadler )  for the important issues that he has raised in regards to this important legislation .  mr. chairman , i think we can all concede or stipulate that no one is in favor of frivolous lawsuits in this country .  as a former special prosecutor , state prosecutor in wisconsin , and as a young lawyer who used to handle corporate litigation in a large law firm , i saw firsthand some of the abuses that take place in the judicial process .  but i believe that there is a right and a wrong way of moving forward in dealing with the frivolous lawsuit situation in the country .  unfortunately , the majority base bill today , i think , is the wrong approach , whereas the substitute that we are offering here cures a lot of defects that the majority is offering and would put some substance behind cracking down on the filing of frivolous lawsuits .  but first let us correct some of the facts .  there has been a lot of rhetoric from some of our colleagues here claiming that the real bane of the judicial system today are a bunch of trial attorneys running around chasing ambulances , filing needless personal injury cases , clogging the court system , driving up litigation costs , increasing the expenses of corporations , and that is what is to be blamed in regards to dealing with frivolous lawsuits , when , in fact , the facts indicate just the opposite .  a recent comprehensive study by public citizen has shown that the explosion in the filing of lawsuits has really rested with the corporations of this country , who have been filing four to five times more claims and lawsuits than individual plaintiffs in this country .  furthermore , when rule 11 sanctions have been applied , they have been applied in 69 percent of the cases against corporations that are abusing the discovery process or filing needless lawsuits .  so it is not these money-grubbing trial attorneys that so many want to believe that exist out there that are causing a lot of the problem in the judicial system ; it is rather corporations that are increasing it .  it is those who are most eager to support the majority base bill who are most likely to take advantages of the opportunities of filing lawsuits in our country .  i find that a bit ironic .  but we are also today , and both of us , the majority and the substitute , is really usurping the rules enabling act .  when congress passed that , it was a recognition that we here really do not have a lot of good expertise , and we are not in the trenches dealing with these rules every day .  that is why the judicial conference looks at rules changes .  they submit it to the supreme court for approval , who then finally submits it to congress for our consideration to adopt or to revise at the end of the day .  that whole process is being usurped .  finally , and as the gentleman from california indicated , we have a short-term memory problem in this congress .  this has been tried between 1983 and 1993 , and the rules were changed because it was not working , because we were taking away too much discretion from the judges in the application of rule 11 .  it had a disproportionate impact on the filing of civil rights actions in this country .  our substitute bill cures that by exempting the filing of civil rights under this legislation .  this is significant , because as the gentleman from california pointed out that when there were attempts to stifle meritorious claims from going forward or increasing the litigation costs in lawsuits , it was usually in the civil rights actions that were taken during this period which led to the change and the reform of mandatory sanctions back to a discretionary system , allowing the judges to decide the application of the appropriate penalties based on the facts and circumstances of the case .  what is this debate about today ?  i would commend a recently released movie called `` north country '' to all of my colleagues before they consider the final passage of this legislation .  it is about a young mother of two who took a job in the taconite mining company in northern minnesota and entered an atmosphere and environment of pervasive sexual harassment that not only applied to her , but all the women that were working in that company .  she was the first to file a class action suit on behalf of herself and the other women in the country and the nation .  because she was meritorious , she prevailed in that lawsuit that lead to incredible changes in regards to the treatment of women in the modern workplace .  that is what is at stake in allowing the civil rights actions to at least go through .  we allow that in the substitute , and i ask adoption of the substitute .  