Volume 151, No. 139 covering the 1st Session of the 109th Congress (2005 - 2006) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“EXXON'S EXTRAORDINARY PROFITS” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H9337 on Oct. 27, 2005.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
EXXON'S EXTRAORDINARY PROFITS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, tonight I would like to place on the Record the extraordinary profits of one corporation registered with the New York Stock Exchange by the name of Exxon.
Today, news reports indicate that Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded company, has posted the largest U.S. corporate profit in world history: nearly $10 billion. That is $10 billion in just 3 months.
We know where that money came from. It came from all of us. It came from the American people. Quarterly profits for Exxon are up 75 percent since last year. The revenue of this company alone will ring in at over
$100 billion this year.
Now how big is $100 billion? Well, $100 billion is about one-quarter of what the U.S. Department of Defense spends in 1 year. But $100 billion is more than all of the following U.S. Departments spend in a year combined. The whole U.S. Department of Education, all of the student loans, all of the help for our school children around the country, it is a drop in the bucket compared to the profits of Exxon.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, that is small potatoes compared to what Exxon earns.
The Department of Transportation, with all of those bridges across the United States that have to be fixed, some in rural areas, certainly in the big cities, crumbling infrastructure, well, Exxon's profits are a lot larger than the Department of Transportation spends in a year.
NASA, poor NASA, they only have about $16 billion a year to explore outerspace and the heavens beyond us.
If you add them all up: Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, and NASA, they do not equal the revenues of Exxon.
Now the interesting thing about Exxon, it is the world's largest publicly traded company, but it has a special deal. Guess where most of its oil comes from? Saudi Arabia. Have no doubt, with the special licensing agreement signed with that company, a lot of that money drawn off of this marketplace will not go to education of our children, it will not go to fix up our roads, it is not going to help clean up our environment, and it certainly will not take us as far as Saturn.
No, a lot of those dollars will be used to hire mercenaries to protect the Saudi oil interests, which is one of the major places this country imports petroleum from because we cannot figure out how to get it right here at home.
Mr. Speaker, $9.9 billion in one quarter. Think of what those funds could do if you did not put them in Exxon's pockets. Think what they could do in your community. Take a program, a teeny program like the Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program, which spends not $9.9 billion, but $15 million a year. That is pocket change to Exxon. It gives little coupons to senior citizens across our country who cannot afford to pay these rising gas prices and cannot afford to pay for their heating bills this winter. It gives them $20 a month in the summer to go to farmers' markets in their communities to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. We cannot put it in all of the States. Only 28 States even have this program, and not in every county.
But if you ever watch one of these senior citizens take one of those farmers' market coupons and stand in front of fresh fruits and vegetables and struggle with the decision of whether they are going to buy raspberries for the first time in 25 years, what is more important, Mr. Speaker, more profits for Exxon or a little bit to help the senior citizens of America who want to buy fresh fruits and vegetables?
Seniors need that food so much that they literally buy it at the end of the day when the farmers reduce their price, and they turn it into soups and stews and put it in their freezers or their friends' freezers so they can have soups during the winter time made out of fresh vegetables that have been frozen.
Mr. Speaker, $9.9 billion. I am going to write a letter to the president of Exxon. I do not even know who the person is. I am going to ask if they would take $15 million out of the $9.9 billion in profits they just made to double the senior farmers' market nutrition program in our country. Would they even really miss it? How does Saudi Arabia use all of that money? And why do they need all of those mercenaries to protect their oil wells? Why is that country so unstable? Why do they have to take money out of our pockets through Exxon every single day?
It is really unbelievable that one corporation could make that much money off this marketplace in one quarter and this Congress does nothing.
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