mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for the time that he has spent on this legislation .  i think we have seen this come across our desks for a number of sessions , and we have tried to work in a bipartisan manner in order to find a way to respond to some of the larger class actions that are now proceeding before us in the courts .  mr. speaker , let me start out by trying to address some of the large dilemmas that have seemingly been the underpinnings of this overhaul of a system that is not broken .  i know some two or three sessions ago we were in the midst of conversations about the asbestos lawsuits .  frankly , i believe that with a reasonable dialogue and exchange , we were nearing some sort of resolution that would have allowed that heinous series of events over the years , the asbestos poisoning for many , many workers , to be brought to a conclusion .  for some reason , those favoring class action reform want to paint with a broad brush the victims , those who have been victimized by asbestos poisoning .  even today as we are looking to reconstruct some of the older buildings in my community , we are finding an asbestos problem .  but because of the notice that was given through these class action lawsuits , we now have companies who are protecting workers who are going in trying to clean out asbestos .  we would not have had that had we had not had this asbestos crisis .  it is the same thing with tobacco .  although there has been some humor about `` do n't you know when to stop smoking , '' we know that for years and years , years and years , there was no labeling of cigarettes to suggest that they in fact caused cancer .  so the tobacco lawsuits are not in fact frivolous .  they may be high in return , but they are not frivolous .  this class action lawsuit legislation , i believe , is excessive and overreaching .  what it simply wants to do is burden federal courts without giving them any resources .  there is nothing in this legislation that increases the funding of our federal courts .  take the southern district , for example .  we are so overburdened with criminal cases , immigration cases , smuggling cases , drug cases , there is absolutely no room to orderly now prosecute or allow to proceed class action lawsuits from people who have been damaged enormously .  this legislation wants to federalize mass torts , that is thousands and thousands of people , when they realize that the compromise , for example , that was offered in the senate , the feinstein compromise , does not do anything , because what it says is you can go into state court if you can find one of the defendants of a large corporation in your state .  if you happen to be a small state or maybe some state that is not the headquarters of corporate entities , like on the east coast , for example , you will find no defendant , so you will be languishing year after year after year trying to get into federal court .  what it also does is minimizes the opportunity of those who can secure their local lawyer to get them into a state court and burdens them with the responsibility of finding some high-priced counsel that they can not afford to try to understand federal procedure law to get into the federal court .  it closes the door to the least empowered : the poor , the working class and the middle class .  what we find as well is that this legislation is much broader than is needed .  why close the door to those who are injured by the failings of products ?  why close the doors to those who are injured by the mass and unfortunate activities of a company like enron in my congressional district , penalizing thousands of workers all over america unfairly and giving them no relief , giving no relief to the pensioners who lost all of their dollars ?  mr. speaker , what we have here is a response to no crisis , a response to no problem .  frankly , i believe that if we reasonably look at this legislation , we will find that all it does is it zippers the courthouse door .  to my good friend who mentioned that civil rights can take place wherever is necessary , let me just share with you that civil rights is not a popular cause ; and , therefore , to then add it to get in line now with thousands of other cases , you can be assured that there will be a crisis .  mr. speaker , let me simply say i rise to support the substitute that has the civil rights carve-out , the wage-and-hour carve-out .  it excludes non-action cases involving physical injuries , an attorney general carve-out , the anti-secrecy language ; and in particular it does not allow companies to go offshore to avoid class action lawsuits .  mr. speaker , let me simply say this is a bill on the floor with no problem .  but i can tell you , america , you are going to have a big problem once this bill is passed , and i am saddened by the fact that time after time we come to this floor and we close out the working people , we close out the middle-class , and we close out those who need relief .  