House Democrats plan to continue their drumbeat against the Iraq war this week with a bill that would punish contractors found guilty of fraud while working for the military overseas.
The bill is one of several Iraq-related measures the House is using to push the Democratic anti-war agenda, and comes in response to reports of millions of dollars lost to fraud and abuse by companies hired by the U.S. government to help rebuild Iraq.
“ThisHouse of Representatives will hold the president accountable every chance we get and on a regular basis for the misconduct of the war in Iraq, ” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said last week.
According to the Justice Department, more than 70 active investigations are under way into abuse by military contractors overseas. Proponents of the bill say the laws governing the contractors’ actions are not clear and need to be stiffened.
“Over the last four years, reconstruction fraud has run rampant during the engagement of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., said at a recent hearing. “We currently have a situation where many contractors act with impunity and no accountability because they operate outside the physical jurisdiction of the United States and therefore outside the U.S. criminal code.”
Republicans have cautioned the bill could interfere with Justice Department efforts to bring fraud cases against overseas contractors.
“Adding a separate statute could score political points while actually weakening U.S. efforts to prosecute war profiteering,” said Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va.
The bill would criminalize overcharging the government for profit, with penalties of up to 20 years in jail and a minimum fine of $1 million. The Senate has introduced similar legislation but has not yet acted on it.
House action on the bill comes after the Senate abandoned its efforts to pass anti-war legislation that would have set a deadline for troop withdrawal from Iraq. The House has already passed legislation mandating withdrawal, but Senate Republicans have blocked it from clearing Congress.
Pelosi defended the move to take up weaker legislation such as the contracting bill. The House last week passed legislation that would subject oversees contractors to U.S. laws.
“It’s important for the American people to know of the fiscal mismanagement — that the taxpayer dollar is not accounted for in Iraq,” Pelosi said. “They went into Iraq without — again — without a plan, without a strategy for success and without a plan to leave.”
