"President Clinton's budget for 2000 perpetuates the burdens that U.S. businesses are shouldering on behalf of the federal bureaucracy.

"A company that wants to sell $25 million worth of stock to the public will pay $5,000 into U.S. Treasury for who knows what purpose. It's certainly not for government review of the stock offering. That work is performed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which will collect another $1,600 from the company to pay for the SEC's operations.

"In other words, we are collecting more than three times as much money as we need to run the Securities and Exchange Commission. This amounts to a general government tax on businesses that are trying to get capital to create jobs.

"It is my objective as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee to end this situation."