Patrick Leahy: “if I might respond to that, it is not a brandnew dimension. It is basically what we had in the Appropriations bill last…”

“if I might respond to that, it is not a brandnew dimension. It is basically what we had in the Appropriations bill last year. Secondly, it is completely appropriate to apply this new law to Iraq when we see these huge cost overruns on no-bid contracts, and nobody seems to be held accountable. Defense offered by lawyers for the contractor might be that there are no false statements and, therefore, no crime, even though one is ripping off the taxpayers. It is similar to the guy who comes in and says: I will sell you this hammer for $2,000. He is not claiming it is a $2,000 hammer. He is not claiming he paid more than $5 for it. He says: I will sell it for $2,000. Has he made excess profit? Of course, he has. But when it comes to the point when our men and women are putting their lives on the line while others sit back in the boardrooms in America, I think every single lawyer in these boardrooms is going to know exactly what this amendment does, and it will be a strong deterrent. Mr. President, as the White House proved last year when this amendment was debated during the Iraq supplemental conference, I am sure the Senator can pull up the votes to defeat me. I think it is a mistake. Frankly, I will keep on trying to bring up commonsense amendments to prevent war profiteering.”