Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. DOGGETT. Thank you for your good work on this amendment. This will be the third bill that we have amended on it.

Mr. Chairman, seldom has a day gone by recently without a headline about some American company that is running for the border to avoid its tax bill. Indeed, today's New York Times has ``Patriot Flees Homeland,'' ``Drug Firms Make Haste to Elude Tax,'' and an excellent piece in Fortune magazine and The Washington Post that Ms. DeLauro referenced by Allan Sloan, entitled, ``Positively un-American tax dodges.''

It all gives new meaning to the term ``sunshine patriot'' when some corporation renounces its citizenship and claims it is a citizen of the Cayman Islands or of Bermuda, where it does little or no business other than tax evasion.

The willingness of corporations to renounce their citizenship and leave America behind, at least in name only and at least when the tax bill is due but not when the desire for a government contract is there, has been recognized in the Senate Finance Committee, where Senator Wyden will conduct hearings next week on the best legislative approach to put a stop to this. But we can do something today to put a stop to what are called ``inversions,'' which are truly perversions of the Tax Code. As Mr. Sloan writes, ``Inverters are deserters.''

Today, Members can respond to this desertion by denying them government contracts. I would like to do more, but I believe this legislation adopted now in these other appropriations acts--repeating it for every one of them--will do a great deal to send a message about those who shirk their responsibilities to America at the same time they ask other taxpayers to use their tax money to finance government contracts.

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Mr. DOGGETT. The amendment says, if you renounce your citizenship and go abroad to avoid paying taxes, don't come with your hand outstretched to ask other taxpayers who stayed here and worked and contributed to the success of America--those that are proud to be American businesses and are paying their fair share--to pay for you to get a government contract. Don't ask them to put up their tax dollars to pay for your success.

We believe that this approach provides protection to the Treasury and responds to those corporations that have abandoned America.

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