[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 76 (Thursday, June 3, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H3724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               PUTTING PROFIT BEFORE PATRIOTISM MUST END

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, time and again companies like Accenture 
have abused loopholes in the Tax Code to shirk their duties to the 
United States. They incorporate on paper in countries like Bermuda for 
the express purpose of avoiding U.S. taxes. There is no justification 
in today's world for this shameful practice, none.
  Accenture also outsources jobs. Now we learn that the Department of 
Homeland Security has given Accenture a record $10 billion contract, I 
assume with the blessing of this majority, which has done everything in 
its power to allow this practice to continue, including watering down a 
provision that I authored to prohibit these companies from contracting 
with the Department of Homeland Security. I remind my colleagues that 
this House passed that provision by a vote of 318 to 110, with the 
other body following suit.
  So when I hear some actually defend this practice, I think, tell that 
to the families of those men and women who have given their lives in 
Iraq and Afghanistan. Tell them that their loved ones gave their lives 
defending the right of multinational corporations to cheat the American 
taxpayer, because that is what they are doing.
  The time for putting profit before patriotism has passed. That is 
what these folks are doing. Rewarding companies who have abandoned our 
country with government contracts, as this administration is continuing 
to do, is not only unpatriotic, it is immoral. It should end.

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