DELAURO: HEADS OF CORPORATIONS NOT PAYING TAXES SHOULD NOT ADVISE WHITE HOUSE ON TAX REFORM

Washington, DC— Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3), Ranking Member on the Labor, Education, Health, and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, along with 40 of her colleagues in the House of Representatives, sent a letter to President Obama today asking him to not to seek advice on corporate tax reform from the heads of multinational corporations that pursue strategies to avoid U.S. taxes.

The Jobs and Competitiveness Council focuses on strengthening the economy, ensuring U.S. competitiveness, and creating jobs, opportunity, and prosperity for Americans, and is lead by a group of advisors including business and financial leaders, including General Electric's Chairman and chief executive Jeffrey Immelt. Last year, GE, one of America's largest corporations, reported $14.3 billion in earnings, and claimed a staggering $3.2 billion in tax benefits.

The Representatives wrote, "We do not believe it is in the U.S. interest to have the heads of multinational corporations that pursue strategies to avoid U.S. taxes advising your Administration. For such reform to be successful, we believe the goal must be to create a system that is fair to all taxpayers and one that addresses the number one concern you articulated to members of the Jobs Council in your first meeting earlier this year: the unacceptably high rate of unemployment."

The text of the letter appears below.

April 15, 2011

The Honorable Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

As we continue to work with your Administration toward the shared goal of creating jobs in the United States, laying the foundation for long-term economic growth and reducing the deficit, we write with regard to a key component of those efforts: corporate tax reform. Specifically, we wish to express our deep concern with the views some of your key advisors, namely some of the members on your Jobs and Competitiveness Council (Jobs Council), may hold when it comes to creating a corporate tax system that is fair, encourages U.S. multinationals to create good middle class jobs in the United States rather than outsourcing them overseas, and curtails corporate offshore tax abuses that cost the U.S. Treasury up to $60 billion each year, dramatically adding to the deficit.

We agree with your observation articulated in this year's State of the Union address that the tax code is rigged to "benefit particular companies and industries" to the point where some can "end up paying no taxes at all" and applaud you for your call to "get rid of the loopholes" and "level the playing field." The fact that a large number of U.S. corporations pay no federal income taxes to the detriment of those that play by the rules, and ultimately our economy as a whole, must be corrected in any tax reform package.

Yet, as average American businesses and households prepared their tax returns for 2010, they were undoubtedly outraged by a recent New York Times article detailing how one of the largest U.S. corporations, General Electric, paid no federal taxes in 2010 and in fact claimed a $3.2 billion tax benefit on reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, including $5.1 billion from its operations in the United States. At the same time, it is certainly not lost on many of them that the chairman and chief executive of G.E., Jeffrey Immelt, is also the chair of your Jobs Council, an advisory body made up mainly of the heads of corporate and financial institutions.

To be clear, we strongly support the Jobs Council's focus on strengthening the economy, ensuring U.S. competitiveness, and creating jobs, opportunity, and prosperity for the American people. Moreover, we commend the Jobs Council's business and financial leaders' service to their country and commitment to provide you with sound advice as you seek policies that allow the United States to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world. We agree with many of Mr. Immelt's own stated goals, including the need to expand our manufacturing base and invest in advanced technologies.

With regard to corporate tax reform, however, we do not believe it is in the U.S. interest to have the heads of multinational corporations that pursue strategies to avoid U.S. taxes advising your Administration. For such reform to be successful, we believe the goal must be to create a system that is fair to all taxpayers and one that addresses the number one concern you articulated to members of the Jobs Council in your first meeting earlier this year: the unacceptably high rate of unemployment. To address the former, we believe it is critical to, as you stated, eliminate loopholes and level the playing field. As importantly, with regard to the latter, corporate tax reform must be implemented in such a way so that U.S. multinational corporations that have outsourced jobs and investment overseas are incentivized to invest in American workers to create good, well-paying middle class jobs at home.

Accordingly, we request that your Administration keep these concerns with regard to the Jobs Council in mind as you move forward with any corporate tax reform proposal and that you maintain the utmost transparency with Congress and the American people on who is influencing the decision-making process on this critical issue. To that end, we would like to learn more specifically from your Administration what both your goals for corporate tax reform are and what processes are in place to solicit ideas and put together a reform package as part of the debate on this critical issue with Congress.

Thank you for your prompt attention. We look forward to continuing our work with you on policies that create American middle class jobs and long-term economic growth that allows the United States to remain competitive in the global economy. Sincerely,

ROSA L. DeLAURO Member of Congress