mr. speaker , the vote in this house we will take within the hour will leave only one more step , the president 's signature , in this first major attack on lawsuit abuse .  i oppose the substitute and support the bill .  i want to express my appreciation to the gentleman from wisconsin ( mr. sensenbrenner )  and his committee and all the members , in fact , who have been willing to take on this tough fight , but particularly to the chairman for working hard to find a way to get this bill on the floor and to the president this early in this congress .  frivolous lawsuits are clogging america 's judicial system , endangering america 's small businesses , jeopardizing jobs , and driving up prices for consumers .  the bill we are debating today will reduce these junk lawsuits through tougher sanctions and increased commonsense protections .  the past few years have witnessed an explosion of interstate class actions being filed in state courts , particularly in certain magnet jurisdictions .  these magnet courts are filled with class action abuses .  they routinely approve settlements in which the lawyers receive large fees and the class members receive virtually nothing .  the class action fairness act is a commonsense bipartisan plan that addresses this serious problem by allowing larger interstate class action cases , cases that truly do involve multiple states , to be filed in federal court .  in addition to unclogging certain overused courts , this bill ends the harassment of local businesses through forum shopping .  lawyers who now manipulate this system often do anything to stay out of federal court .  they sometimes name a local pharmacy or a local convenience store in a nationwide product liability suit simply because they believe that court , and that court often has created a reputation as the place to go to get unjust settlements .  sometimes they wait and amend their complaint and add millions of dollars of claims after the deadline for removal to federal court .  this bill stops this unfair practice as well .  this bill also establishes a much-needed class action rights bill .  several provisions are specifically designed to ensure that class members , not their attorneys , are the primary beneficiaries of the class action process .  six years ago on this floor we really began the process of attacking this system .  the stories go on and on and on , to the point that by the time we passed legislation like this in the last congress for the third congress straight , members were eager to just simply get a couple of minutes to talk about one of the classes where the people in the class get a dollar-off coupon , the people in the class get the smallest possible box of cheerios , the people in the class get a 31-cent check , or the people in the class even wind up having to pay the lawyers of the class additional money because there really was no money for the people in the class that was being determined .  this bill requires that judges carefully review settlements and limits attorneys fees when the value of the settlement received by the class members is minor in comparison or when there is a net loss settlement where the class members actually end up losing money .  this bill bans settlements that award some class members a large recovery simply because they live closer to the court that the lawyers shopped for to get that case in that judge 's court .  it allows federal courts to maximize the benefit of class action settlements by requiring that unclaimed settlement funds be donated to charitable organizations .  the class action fairness act is good for small business and good for consumers .  i urge a `` no '' vote on the substitute .  i urge my colleagues to support this important legislation .  mr. speaker , i thank the chairman and his committee for their hard work on this effort .  