Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts, and I rise to support the DeLauro amendment.
It is a sad day in America when someone comes to this House floor to tell us that we have to depend on companies that renounce their American citizenship to save a few tax dollars to get quality products, workmanship, or services.
We had a great debate a few months ago about allowing a foreign company to take over six of our ports. We almost universally agreed that was a bad idea. It doesn't make any difference, and those companies hadn't renounced their U.S. citizenship, they were foreign companies; I didn't think it was a good idea and I don't know anybody else who did, but I am sure there are those who did. At least the President thought it was.
But why would we think it was a good idea to turn over the Federal business, the business of the American people that is paid for by their tax dollars, to companies that say I don't want to pay my fair share; I want to go to Bermuda or Panama or the Cayman Islands and I am going to pull these little slick tricks, and I am basically not going to pay my fair share, but I want all of the benefits of being an American and all of the benefits of being an American company. I want to get those American tax dollars so that my company can profit even more and pay even less of its fair share. That is what this is all about.
I know a really good attorney. He has got a dog named Loophole. That is what this business is about. We have already covered this. It was covered all right, it was covered with a nice big fat loophole that made it possible for companies that have renounced their American citizenship just so they didn't have to pay their fair share and could still come in and rake in the tax dollars in a way that is most unfair to our own companies.
It gives these foreign companies an advantage over U.S. companies. This is just simply not right. You don't have to be all broke out in brilliance to figure this out. It is time that this House acted. We have done it before, and it is time that we do it again. It is time we start giving people that value their American citizenship as good a deal as it is possible to give them. I would urge support of this amendment.
