[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 62 (Wednesday, May 15, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H2477]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           CORPORATE TRAITORS CHOOSE PROFITS OVER PATRIOTISM

  (Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I want to call attention this 
morning to Bermuda, and the practice of American companies 
reincorporating to a foreign country to avoid paying U.S. income taxes, 
which is inconsistent with American corporate citizenship, patriotism, 
and unfair to those individuals and businesses who pay their fair share 
in taxes.
  To address this problem of corporate inversions, the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Maloney) and I have introduced H.R. 3884, the 
Corporate Patriot Enforcement Act.

                              {time}  1015

  This legislation currently has 50 bipartisan cosponsors, and support 
for it continues to grow as Members and citizens alike become aware of 
what is happening.
  Senator Baucus and Senator Grassley have also introduced similar 
legislation and the Treasury Department acknowledges it has become a 
huge problem.
  Mr. Speaker, since H.R. 3884 was introduced on March 6, a number of 
companies such as the all-American Stanley Tools Company of New 
Britain, Connecticut, have filed to reincorporate overseas. So, they 
just get a phony address and they avoid paying corporate income taxes 
that the rest of their competitors all have to pay.
  The impetus for my support of this issue did not come from the AFL-
CIO; it came from the competitors of these corporate expatriates who 
are saying, ``If we paid, they ought to pay.'' In this time, with the 
country feeling so good in the aftermath of September 11 by our 
patriotic response, everybody should do their part. Bermuda ought not 
to be an address for these companies; America should.

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