[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24030-24031]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     EXXON'S EXTRAORDINARY PROFITS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, tonight I would like to place on the Record 
the extraordinary profits of one corporation registered with the New 
York Stock Exchange by the name of Exxon.
  Today, news reports indicate that Exxon, the world's largest publicly 
traded company, has posted the largest U.S. corporate profit in world 
history: nearly $10 billion. That is $10 billion in just 3 months.
  We know where that money came from. It came from all of us. It came 
from the American people. Quarterly profits for Exxon are up 75 percent 
since last year. The revenue of this company alone will ring in at over 
$100 billion this year.
  Now how big is $100 billion? Well, $100 billion is about one-quarter 
of what the U.S. Department of Defense spends in 1 year. But $100 
billion is more than all of the following U.S. Departments spend in a 
year combined. The whole U.S. Department of Education, all of the 
student loans, all of the help for our school children around the 
country, it is a drop in the bucket compared to the profits of Exxon.
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, that is small potatoes 
compared to what Exxon earns.
  The Department of Transportation, with all of those bridges across 
the United States that have to be fixed,

[[Page 24031]]

some in rural areas, certainly in the big cities, crumbling 
infrastructure, well, Exxon's profits are a lot larger than the 
Department of Transportation spends in a year.
  NASA, poor NASA, they only have about $16 billion a year to explore 
outerspace and the heavens beyond us.
  If you add them all up: Department of Education, Environmental 
Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, and NASA, they do not 
equal the revenues of Exxon.
  Now the interesting thing about Exxon, it is the world's largest 
publicly traded company, but it has a special deal. Guess where most of 
its oil comes from? Saudi Arabia. Have no doubt, with the special 
licensing agreement signed with that company, a lot of that money drawn 
off of this marketplace will not go to education of our children, it 
will not go to fix up our roads, it is not going to help clean up our 
environment, and it certainly will not take us as far as Saturn.
  No, a lot of those dollars will be used to hire mercenaries to 
protect the Saudi oil interests, which is one of the major places this 
country imports petroleum from because we cannot figure out how to get 
it right here at home.
  Mr. Speaker, $9.9 billion in one quarter. Think of what those funds 
could do if you did not put them in Exxon's pockets. Think what they 
could do in your community. Take a program, a teeny program like the 
Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program, which spends not $9.9 
billion, but $15 million a year. That is pocket change to Exxon. It 
gives little coupons to senior citizens across our country who cannot 
afford to pay these rising gas prices and cannot afford to pay for 
their heating bills this winter. It gives them $20 a month in the 
summer to go to farmers' markets in their communities to purchase fresh 
fruits and vegetables. We cannot put it in all of the States. Only 28 
States even have this program, and not in every county.
  But if you ever watch one of these senior citizens take one of those 
farmers' market coupons and stand in front of fresh fruits and 
vegetables and struggle with the decision of whether they are going to 
buy raspberries for the first time in 25 years, what is more important, 
Mr. Speaker, more profits for Exxon or a little bit to help the senior 
citizens of America who want to buy fresh fruits and vegetables?
  Seniors need that food so much that they literally buy it at the end 
of the day when the farmers reduce their price, and they turn it into 
soups and stews and put it in their freezers or their friends' freezers 
so they can have soups during the winter time made out of fresh 
vegetables that have been frozen.
  Mr. Speaker, $9.9 billion. I am going to write a letter to the 
president of Exxon. I do not even know who the person is. I am going to 
ask if they would take $15 million out of the $9.9 billion in profits 
they just made to double the senior farmers' market nutrition program 
in our country. Would they even really miss it? How does Saudi Arabia 
use all of that money? And why do they need all of those mercenaries to 
protect their oil wells? Why is that country so unstable? Why do they 
have to take money out of our pockets through Exxon every single day?
  It is really unbelievable that one corporation could make that much 
money off this marketplace in one quarter and this Congress does 
nothing.

                          ____________________