[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5911]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           CONFRONTING TRUMP ON ANTI-SCIENCE AGENDA AND TAXES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Sherman) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, last Saturday was Earth Day, and tens of 
thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people across this 
country had to march in favor of science because, not since Galileo was 
condemned by the Inquisition for asserting that the Earth orbits the 
Sun, not since Galileo was condemned by the Inquisition have science 
deniers had such powerful friends.
  Our species went 1,000 years without science. We call those years, in 
retrospect, the Dark Ages. My time in this Congress has convinced me 
that we should be guided by scientific consensus, by scientific facts, 
not alternative facts.
  Scientific fact: Climate change is real and predominantly man-made, 
and if we don't reduce our emission of greenhouse gasses, then we are 
going to lose our ports, our beaches, our health, and entire countries 
like the Maldives.
  Another scientific fact: Donald Trump can't stop global warming just 
by emitting an unprecedented volume of hot air.
  Now, a week earlier we had tax day, and millions of Americans across 
this country, including in Los Angeles, needed to demonstrate to try to 
get Donald Trump to reveal his tax returns. Every President since 
Richard Nixon has released their tax returns. Donald Trump told us in 
May of 2014: If I decide to run for office, I will produce my tax 
returns. And he said it again a year later. And then he said it during 
the Republican debate in 2016. He said: Oh, I will release my tax 
returns, but they are under audit.
  Well, according to Donald Trump, his 2011 and 2012 returns aren't 
under audit. He ought to release those. But he ought to release all of 
his tax returns. And this idea that they are under audit is absolutely 
absurd.
  The IRS has made it clear: Any taxpayer can release their tax return, 
whether they are under audit or not, and everyone in the tax world--I 
headed the second largest tax agency in this country for several years, 
I am a CPA--knows that you can release your tax returns whether you are 
under audit or not.
  Now, I understand that you don't want to release information to your 
adversary, and if you are being audited, the IRS is your adversary. But 
Donald Trump knows that the IRS already has his tax returns, so who is 
the adversary from which Donald Trump is withholding information? The 
American people are the adversary that cannot see his tax return that 
the IRS already has.
  But it is not enough to just see Donald Trump's Form 1040, because he 
tells us that he has 532 private businesses, secret businesses in the 
sense that they do not report their financial information to the SEC, 
over 532 of those business entity investments. We need to see the tax 
returns of every business entity that Trump controls. Over 100 of those 
investments are in foreign countries. We need to see the tax returns of 
Trump Panama Hotel, LLC; Trump Korea, LLC; DT Dubai Golf Course, LLC; 
and all the business entities that he has that are doing business in 
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and China.
  Finally, Donald Trump ran as a populist, especially on corporate 
issues, but now he wants to allow corporate inversions that provide tax 
benefits to corporate Benedict Arnolds who betray our country and 
incorporate in some foreign country. He refuses to designate China as a 
currency manipulator, even though he pledged to the American people 
during his rallies that he would do just that, and he refuses to do 
anything about Chinese requirements for coproduction agreements.
  Donald Trump: His rallies sounded like Bernie Sanders, but he is 
governing like Goldman Sachs.

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