[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 25306-25307]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     WAXMAN AMENDMENT ON H.R. 3289

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the company from which Vice President 
Cheney, the sitting Vice President of the United States, the company 
from which he continues to draw $13,000 a month, Halliburton, is back 
in the headlines.
  The latest example of impropriety from the Vice President's company 
comes in the form of price-gouging gasoline in Iraq at the expense of 
American taxpayers. Halliburton is overcharging United States citizens, 
as reported in The New York Times, as reported in studies, to the tune 
of $250 million, money we are not spending on prescription drugs for 
seniors, money we are not spending on education, money we are not 
spending on highways. Halliburton is overcharging U.S. citizens $250 
million, a ploy that independent experts have termed simply ``highway 
robbery.''
  Here is how their scheme works: Halliburton procures gasoline that 
they generally get from Kuwait, gasoline that can be bought in the 
Persian Gulf for 71 cents a gallon. It could be transported to Iraq for 
no more than 25 cents per gallon. It is brought to the United States, 
to New York Harbor, for under a dollar. So they buy it for 71 cents; 
they transport it to Iraq for 25 cents. That brings the total to 96 
cents a gallon. Halliburton then adds on its

[[Page 25307]]

profit margin 2 to 7 percent, bringing the price total to $1.03 a 
gallon. Yet Halliburton charges the Federal Government, the government 
where Dick Cheney is the Vice President, the government where the Vice 
President, Dick Cheney, used to work for Halliburton and still gets 
$13,000 a month from Halliburton, Halliburton charges our government, 
us taxpayers, between $1.62 and $1.72, an extra 60 or 70 cents per 
gallon, a profit margin of over 55 percent. That is the $250 million 
which independent experts have called highway robbery from Halliburton.
  To add insult to injury, the American taxpayer subsidizes that cost 
when it is sold to the Iraqi people for between a nickel and 15 cents a 
gallon.
  My constituents in northeast Ohio remember seeing gas prices 
skyrocket the afternoon of September 11, 2001, as some gas station 
owners sought to make profit from a national tragedy. It did not work 
for them when they tried that kind of war profiteering. Unfortunately, 
it is working for Halliburton, and my constituents are outraged that 
Halliburton is making money at our taxpayers' expense ultimately from a 
national tragedy.
  The Bush administration has asked for an additional $2 billion for 
the Iraqi oil sector. One billion of that would go to buying gasoline, 
cooking gas, kerosene, and diesel fuel for Iraq; and it costs about $4 
million a day. Halliburton will continue to pocket outrageous, some 
might say corrupt, profits.
  All taxpayers bear the burden of unbid contracts, of price hikes, of 
inadequate supplies for our troops in Iraq. We are spending $1 billion 
a week in Iraq. That number will go up as Congress just appropriated 
last week $87 billion more for Iraq, as we had already appropriated $70 
billion before that. We are spending $1 billion a week. A third of that 
money is going to private contractors. A lot of that money goes to 
Halliburton and Bechtel, companies close to the President. Companies 
which are major contributors to the President of the United States in 
those unbid contracts simply are not accountable.
  At the same time, this administration has not been able to supply and 
to provide for our troops. Not enough safe drinking water for our 
troops. Too many of them have come down with dysentery. Not enough body 
armor, Kevlar jackets for our troops. One quarter of them do not have 
body armor. The administration has said by December, even though they 
knew they we were going to war a year ago, they would finally get the 
body armor to our troops. All of that against the backdrop of $1 
billion a week, $300 million of that going to unbid contracts to 
companies like Halliburton. And, again, understand, Mr. Speaker, 
Halliburton is still paying $13,000 a month to the Vice President of 
the United States.
  The private contractors seem to have all the money and supplies they 
want, but our troops do not. Something is wrong with this picture.
  The gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) offered an amendment to 
cure this gasoline gouging problem, this highway robbery problem where 
Halliburton has taken $250 million extra from U.S. taxpayers. I cannot 
understand how Members of this body can support Halliburton as it 
continues to gouge the U.S. taxpayers. In almost a party-line vote, 
this House of Representatives rejected the amendment that would have 
stopped the abuses from Halliburton from the Vice President's company, 
that would have stopped this highway robbery.
  The administration continues to give Halliburton a free hand to 
exploit American taxpayers for every last dime they could get. 
Halliburton should be ashamed. This Congress should be ashamed. The 
administration should be ashamed for that kind of a ripoff of U.S. tax 
dollars especially in wartime.

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