Washington, D.C. -- “A few American companies have wreaked havoc on our country’s economy and provoked national outrage because they put profits above market stability, the long-term benefit of their customers and any sense of business ethics,” U.S. Representative Neil Abercrombie told a House Judiciary Committee hearing today on his War Profiteering Prevention Act.

The Judiciary Committee is considering a package of legislation to crack down on fraud and corrupt business practices in the United States and abroad.  Abercrombie’s bill is aimed at U.S. companies with government contracts to provide goods and services overseas.  The measure establishes penalties, including prison and fines for bid rigging, fraud, gross overcharging, delivery of faulty military parts or environmental damage.

“Wars have always been huge and highly profitable business, but never have we seen the pursuit of profit practiced with more cavalier disregard for the health and safety of our troops, the success of our reconstruction efforts or the continuing support of the American public,” said Abercrombie.  “Some government contractors have declared open season on the U.S. taxpayer.” 

The U.S. has spent more than $50 billion to hire private contractors in Iraq to provide food, water, gasoline and other supplies, guard bases, drive trucks and many other activities in support of our troops and the reconstruction effort.  Billions of dollars have already been appropriated for Afghanistan.  Yet prosecuting cases of contract fraud involving hundreds of millions of dollars and preventing its recurrence has been hampered because anti-fraud laws that protect against the waste or theft of tax dollars in the United States are not as clearly applicable overseas. 

“This bill is critical to our national security interests; both for the survival of our own economy and accountability to the taxpayer, and the successful reconstruction of foreign nations gripped by extremism,” Abercrombie testified.  “We have seen what happens without proper government oversight.  We would be derelict in our responsibility to the public we serve if we did not take every step available to us to discourage such behavior in the future, and to punish those who violate the public trust.”

Abercrombie first introduced the War Profiteering Prevention Act in 2007.  It was approved by the full House by a vote of 375-3, however, the Bush Administration opposed it and action in the Senate was blocked.

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