[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 143 (Tuesday, October 6, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H10489-H10490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        NO FEDERAL FUNDS FOR CORPORATIONS CONVICTED OF FELONIES

  (Ms. McCOLLUM asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, last week I introduced legislation to 
cut off Federal dollars to corporations that are convicted of felonies. 
Presently, corporate crooks are allowed to continue to receive taxpayer 
dollars, and that's wrong.
  I urge my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, to cosponsor H.R. 
3679, the ACORN Act--the Against Corporations Organizing to Rip-off the 
Nation Act of 2009, and end waste, fraud, and abuse of billions of 
taxpayers' dollars.
  Last month, Congress took action to defund nonprofits serving 
America, but it failed to act against the corporate crooks that are 
actually guilty of felonies--including defrauding taxpayers.
  Why are companies that break the law as a business strategy allowed 
to receive taxpayer funds? A government contract is a privilege, not a 
right, and if a company commits a felony against the people of the 
United States, then that privilege must end.
  It is time that Congress get serious and end taxpayer funding of 
corporate cheats, crooks, and criminals.
  I urge support for H.R. 3679.

                    [From The Nation, Oct. 5, 2009]

                     An ACORN Amendment for Pfizer

                          (By Jeremy Scahill)

       In the wake of the Congressional witch hunt against the 
     community organization ACORN, initiated by Republican 
     minority leader John Boehner and supported by all but 
     seventy-five Democrats in the House and ten in the Senate 
     (Independent Bernie Sanders also voted no), a small number of 
     Democratic lawmakers are pushing back. Last week, in response 
     to the Defund ACORN Act, which seeks to prohibit federal 
     funds to the community group, Minnesota Democrat Betty 
     McCollum, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, 
     introduced an ACORN act of her own. It is titled the 
     ``Against Corporations Organizing to Rip-off the Nation Act 
     of 2009,'' also referred to simply as the ACORN Act. HR 3679 
     seeks to ``prohibit the Federal Government from awarding 
     contracts, grants, or other agreements to, providing any 
     other Federal funds to, or engaging in activities that 
     promote certain corporations or companies guilty of certain 
     felony convictions.''
       While some lawmakers are focused on exposing the hypocrisy 
     of targeting ACORN and allowing the fraud- and abuse-plagued 
     war industry to go untouched, McCollum's legislation takes 
     aim at massive healthcare corporations. ``It's time Congress 
     get serious about taxpayer funding of corporate cheats, 
     crooks and criminals,'' says McCollum. ``Last month Congress 
     took action to defund a nonprofit serving poor Americans but 
     failed to act against the corporate crooks that are actually 
     guilty of felonies--including defrauding taxpayers. Why are 
     companies that break the law as a business strategy allowed 
     to receive taxpayer funds? A government contract is a 
     privilege, not a right. If a company commits a felony against 
     the people of the United States, then that privilege must 
     end.'' Significantly, McCollum's co-sponsors on the 
     legislation include Wisconsin Democrat David Obey, chair of 
     the House Appropriations Committee. Obey was one of those 172 
     House Democrats who joined Republicans in voting to defund 
     ACORN on September 17. McCollum, who voted against the Defund 
     ACORN legislation, says that her own legislation is ``modeled 
     after'' that one but ``respects the Constitution by requiring 
     a corporation to be guilty of a felony before federal funds 
     are cut off.''
       McCollum's bill cites the 2008 Corporate Fraud Task Force 
     Report to the President, which found that in fiscal year 
     2007, ``United States Attorneys' offices opened 878 new 
     criminal health care fraud investigations involving 1,548 
     potential defendants. Federal prosecutors had 1,612 health 
     care fraud criminal investigations pending, involving 2,603 
     potential defendants, and filed criminal charges in 434 cases 
     involving 786 defendants. A total of 560 defendants were 
     convicted for health care fraud-related crimes during the 
     year.''
       McCollum's bill singles out Pharmacia & Upjohn Company 
     Inc., a subsidiary of Pfizer. Last month Pfizer agreed to pay 
     a $2.3 billion settlement, which the Justice Department calls 
     ``the largest healthcare fraud settlement in the history of 
     the Department of Justice.'' The settlement stemmed from 
     Pfizer's ``illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical 
     products,'' where the company marketed dosages that had 
     not been approved by the FDA. The company will also plead 
     guilty to a felony violation of the Food, Drug and 
     Cosmetic Act for misbranding the anti-inflammatory drug 
     Bextra ``with the intent to defraud or mislead.'' 
     Prosecutors allege that the company marketed ``off label'' 
     uses of the drug, despite FDA bans. As the New York Times 
     reported, ``Pfizer instructed its sales representatives to 
     tell doctors that the drug could be used to treat acute 
     and surgical pain and at doses well above those approved, 
     even though the drug's dangers--which included kidney, 
     skin and heart risks--increased with the dose, the 
     government charged. The drug was withdrawn in 2005 because 
     of its risks to the heart and skin.'' Pharmacia & Upjohn 
     will also pay a criminal fine of $1.195 billion, ``the 
     largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States 
     for any matter,'' according to the DoJ. Federal 
     prosecutors also stated:
       Pfizer has agreed to pay $1 billion to resolve allegations 
     under the civil False Claims Act that the company illegally 
     promoted four drugs--Bextra; Geodon, an anti-psychotic drug; 
     Zyvox, an antibiotic; and Lyrica, an anti-epileptic drug--and 
     caused false claims to be submitted to government health care 
     programs for uses that were not medically accepted 
     indications and therefore not covered by those programs. The 
     civil settlement also resolves allegations that Pfizer paid 
     kickbacks to health care providers to induce them to 
     prescribe these, as well as other, drugs. The federal share 
     of the civil settlement is $668,514,830 and the state 
     Medicaid share of the civil settlement is $331,485,170. This 
     is the largest civil fraud settlement in history against a 
     pharmaceutical company.
       On September 2, 2009, federal prosecutors, White House 
     officials and military criminal investigators praised the 
     settlement. ``Pfizer violated the law over an extensive time 
     period,'' said Mike Loucks, acting U.S. Attorney for the 
     District of Massachusetts. He

[[Page H10490]]

     added the fine against the company ``demonstrates that such 
     blatant and continued disregard of the law will not be 
     tolerated.''
       Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius 
     called it a ``historic settlement'' and said the government 
     is looking ``for new ways to prevent fraud before it happens. 
     Healthcare is too important to let a single dollar go to 
     waste.''
       Assistant Attorney General Tony West said, ``Illegal 
     conduct and fraud by pharmaceutical companies puts the public 
     health at risk, corrupts medical decisions by healthcare 
     providers and costs the government billions of dollars,'' 
     adding that the plea agreements ``represent yet another 
     example of what penalties will be faced when a pharmaceutical 
     company puts profits ahead of patient welfare.''
       Patrick McFarland, inspector general of the Office of 
     Personnel Management, said the settlement ``reminds the 
     pharmaceutical industry that it must observe those standards 
     and reflects the commitment of federal law enforcement 
     organizations to pursue improper and illegal conduct that 
     places healthcare consumers at risk.''
       The head of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service said 
     that Pfizer's actions ``significantly impacted the integrity 
     of TRICARE, the Department of Defense's healthcare system,'' 
     saying ``This illegal activity increases patients' costs, 
     threatens their safety and negatively affects the delivery 
     of healthcare services to the over 9 million military 
     members, retirees and their families who rely on this 
     system.''
       Yet, despite all of these tough statements--and many more 
     by top officials--Pfizer and its vast network of subsidiaries 
     continue to win massive government contracts. Last year 
     Pfizer made more than $40 billion in profits, and in 2007 it 
     had more than $73 million in federal contracts.
       Loucks points out that ``at the very same time Pfizer was 
     in our office negotiating and resolving the allegations of 
     criminal conduct by its then newly acquired subsidiary, 
     Warner-Lambert, Pfizer was itself in its other operations 
     violating those very same laws.'' In other words, the 
     criminal conduct continues even as the company settles cases. 
     ``The CEO and Board of Directors should have been indicted,'' 
     wrote former New York City Mayor Ed Koch. ``That is truly the 
     only way to stop the practices which produce so much wealth 
     for the company, its stockholders, officers and directors.''
       The glaring question here is, Why is the ``corporate 
     felon'' Pfizer still on the federal dole? ACORN, which 
     received a total of $53 million in federal funds over fifteen 
     years, much of it going toward low-income housing 
     initiatives, was singled out for a ban on funding over the 
     actions of a handful of employees that were promptly fired. 
     The fact is, Congress went after ACORN with a legislative 
     nuke but, for years, has greeted Pfizer with welcoming arms 
     and open wallets.
       McCollum's legislation states that no federal contract, 
     grant or ``any other form'' of agreement ``may be awarded to 
     or entered into with the corporation or company for a 5-year 
     period beginning 30 days after the date of the criminal 
     conviction involved'' and states that ``no Federal funds in 
     any other form may be provided to the corporation or company 
     for such 5-year period.'' The legislation also goes after 
     criminal corporations' ability to inject cash into the 
     campaign coffers of politicians, prohibiting ``corporate 
     felons'' from ``contributing to a candidate for federal 
     office, to a political party, or to a federal political 
     action committee for five years.''
       In 2008 Pfizer gave $980,048 in campaign contributions to 
     Democrats, representing 52 percent of its total campaign 
     contributions. It was the first year since 1990 that Pfizer 
     gave more to Democrats than Republicans. The biggest 
     recipients of Pfizer campaign dollars last year were 
     Democratic Congressman Allen Boyd, who serves on the 
     Appropriations Committee, and Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, 
     a senior member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions 
     Committee. In the 2010 cycle, the company has given 60 
     percent of its campaign cash to Democrats. Barack Obama blew 
     out John McCain in contributions from the pharmaceutical 
     industry, taking in some $2.1 million compared to the 
     $668,000 contributed to McCain's campaign.
       McCollum's legislation would limit the amount of lobbying 
     expenditures by ``corporate felons'' to $1 million a calendar 
     year. In 2009 Pfizer has already spent $11,720,000 on 
     lobbying.
       ACORN does not have high-powered lobbyists, and its 400,000 
     member families do not give major campaign contributions. If 
     they did, the Defund Acorn bill would never have passed 
     Congress. The question for those Democrats who voted to go 
     after this community organization on dubious allegations is a 
     simple one: will you apply that standard to actual corporate 
     felons with real-life rap sheets whose actions have actually 
     harmed ordinary Americans and ripped off taxpayers?

                          ____________________