Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. I reluctantly rise to object to the amendment offered by the gentleman from Puerto Rico, which would undermine the Jones Act.

The amendment would allow foreign-flagged, foreign-built, foreign-owned, and foreign-manned vessels over 100 gross tons to carry passengers within Puerto Rico. As such, this waiver would disadvantage U.S. maritime operators and U.S. seafarers who might otherwise provide such services. In its present form, we cannot support the amendment.

I commend the gentleman from Puerto Rico for his sincere efforts to expand maritime commerce in Puerto Rico, but I cannot support the amendment he has offered today.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, this final amendment prohibits the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from awarding contracts to felons convicted of contract fraud, waste and abuse.

It was just 1 month ago, Mr. Speaker, that a Federal magistrate judge indicted four individuals on an alleged bribery and kickback scheme regarding U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' contracts that defrauded U.S. taxpayers of a minimum of $20 million; taxpayer dollars wasted on BMWs, Rolexes, flat-screen televisions, first-class airline tickets, investment properties across the globe, and the list goes on. In exchange for these kickbacks, the contractors were guaranteed millions in sole-sourced, open-ended contracts with a total award potential of more than $1.7 billion--that's billion with a ``B.'' They were sailing high on taxpayer dollars while other Americans were struggling to stay afloat.

When they were arrested, the coconspirators had their sights set on a $780 million Corps of Engineers' contract. Fortunately, they were apprehended before this very large contract was awarded.

Similarly, in August of this year, a Federal court grand jury in Norfolk, Virginia indicted four coconspirators of multiple alleged criminal charges, including conspiracy, theft of public money, wire fraud, illegal gratuities, false statements and money laundering in connection with a kickback scheme involving Coast Guard vessel repair contracts.

Mr. Speaker, this August 2011 kickback scheme is particularly striking because of the Coast Guard's spectacular contract failures in recent history under the Deepwater program. We all may recall that under Deepwater, the Coast Guard's most infamous failure was the effort to lengthen the Coast Guard's existing 110-foot patrol boats to 123 feet and install new, upgraded information technology equipment. After eight boats were delivered, the Coast Guard determined that the lengthened hulls cracked and were unsafe.

We simply cannot afford to allow one more dollar of our limited Federal resources--of the taxpayers' limited resources--to be wasted. We can help root out these crony kickbacks with this final and straightforward amendment. This is a plain and simple vote to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse.

When you hear about contractors who engage in the largest corruption scheme in modern history, like those in the Army Corps, it's clear they need to be put in the penalty box. This final amendment simply says that contractors who rip off taxpayers can't get more contracts. Specifically, it prohibits the Coast Guard and the Corps of Engineers from awarding a contract to a contractor convicted of fraud or a criminal offense related to obtaining a contract or subcontract with the Federal Government.

It also prohibits a contract for a contractor convicted of embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, falsification or destruction of records, making false statements, tax evasion, violating Federal criminal tax laws, or receiving stolen property from participating.

This final amendment ensures that felons convicted of criminal offenses related to receiving government contracts and abusing the public trust will no longer stand to benefit from future Federal contracts for at least 10 years. This amendment will not kill the bill. It will simply immediately add this taxpayer safeguard, and then the House will vote on final passage of the bill right here and right now.

So I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in supporting this final amendment, which will ensure that we bust waste, fraud, and abuse and throw those kickback cronies into the penalty box.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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