Political Quotes

“When our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and Defense civilians deploy overseas, the Department of Defense enters into agreements with the host nation to prohibit the taxation of the assistance provided by U.S. companies to support their missions. We have entered into such agreements with Afghanistan, but in the last 6 years, the Afghan Government has chosen to ignore these agreements. It has levied more than $1 billion in illegal taxes against our U.S. businesses which are supporting our warfighters. Last year we took action to withhold assistance funding in response to this illegal taxation, yet the Afghan Government continues to submit tax bills to our companies. If the firms refuse to pay, Afghan officials threaten to deny them permits and visas, to arrest company workers, and to prohibit them from moving mission essential equipment into and throughout the country. Though our committee has now increased the amount of funding to be withheld, I propose this amendment to hopefully end this wrong practice altogether. This amendment would require two important steps forward: first the Secretary of Defense would take a full account of illegal taxes levied by the Afghan Government against American companies; second, the Secretary will establish a plan for the Afghan Government to reimburse the illegally levied taxes. In short, no U.S.…”