"Last year, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that millions of U.S. taxpayer funds appropriated for Iraq reconstruction have been lost and diverted. Yet we continue to send more taxpayer funds to Iraq, without accountability. "Too much of this money is unaccounted for, and many of the facilities and services that these funds were supposed to pay for are still nonexistent. We in Congress must ask--where did all the money go? We need to press for more accountability over the use and abuse of billions of taxpayers' dollars sent as development aid to Iraq, not less. "A new law to combat war profiteering in Iraq and elsewhere is sorely needed and long overdue."Leahy's legislation, which in the past never stood a chance with the war profiteers themselves providing financial backing for the Republican Congress, would accomplish some of the following goals:
- Criminalize war profiteering, which is defined as materially overvaluing any good or service with the specific intent to excessively profit from the war and relief or reconstruction activities.
- Strengthen the tools available to federal prosecutors to combat war profiteering by providing clear authority for the Government to seek criminal penalties and to recover excessive profits for war profiteering overseas.
- Prohibit any fraud against the United States, Iraq, or any other foreign country involving a contract for the provision of any goods or services in connection with a war, military action, or relief or reconstruction activities.
- Prohibit making a false statement in any matter involving a contract for the provision of any goods or services in connection with a war, military action, or relief or reconstruction activities.