The Center for Corporate Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest organization working to curb corporate abuses and make corporations publicly accountable.

    What the New Congress Should Do:

NEW: Read Our response to the Obama administration's offshore tax haven reform proposals.

Offshore tax havens suck an estimated $100 billion out of the U.S. each year. "Benedict Arnold Companies" manipulate offshore schemes, while hiring scores of lobbyists to block Congressional action. (Some tax scammers, like billionaire fraudster Allen Stanford, dropped hundreds of thousands into campaign coffers to goad members of Congress to block an effort to crack down on international money laundering.) We got another glimpse at the extent of the problem at a recent hearing on UBS, which disclosed the names of just 300 of 52,000 rich Americans hiding $14.8 billion in Swiss bank accounts as part of a settlement with the Justice Department.

Although the world's most powerful countries were expected to tighten the screws on tax havens when they meet as the G20 in April, they failed to take strong action. Congress can crack down by supporting Senator Levin's "Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act" (S. 605), a bill that then-Senator Obama co-sponsored when it was originally introduced in 2007. The bill, which would restrict offshore tax haven abuses by both companies and individuals, is supported by the Obama administration. Which is a good thing, because the GAO reports that 83 of the 100 largest publicly traded companies do business in offshore tax havens (story). For a summary of the bill, go here. To learn more about offshore tax haven abuses, go here.

Make the polluters pay: enact a carbon tax. As economist William Nordhaus has explained, "The most efficient strategy for slowing or preventing climate change is to impose a universal and internationally harmonized carbon tax levied on the carbon content of fossil fuels." It is also the most equitable: Just as we make those who drive the most pay more for highway repairs (through a gas tax) so we should make those who consume and pollute the most pay the most to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Fix the financial regulations that led to the current economic crisis. For an outline of the steps that should be taken check out Robert Kuttner's (Demos) report, economist Dean Baker's (CEPR) transaction tax proposal, and CCP Steering Committee member Robert Weissman's summary of the financial re-regulatory agenda.

New (02/04/09) CCP's Reaction to Obama Administration's New Executive Pay Policy
Learn about CEO Pay Issues and read our Suggestions for How to Crack Down on CEO Greed.

Stop the War Profiteers:

a) The Stop Outsourcing Security Act (H.R. 4102) would phase out the use of Blackwater and other mercenary firms.
b) The Honest Leadership and Accountability in Contracting Act (S. 606) was introduced by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) in 2007. This bill would bar law-breaking companies from new contracts, help whistleblowers and improve accountability and oversight. See [Bill Summary; our response and analysis]
c) "The Clean Contracting Act" (H.R. 6909) was introduced by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) in the House. [Summary HR 6909] These bills apply lessons learned from Iraq and Katrina contracting to all federal contracts. For more information about war profiteering go here.

    Building A Long-Term Challenge to Corporate Power:

Taming the Giant Corporation was the theme of a 2007 Conference that we helped organize. If you missed the conference, you can watch most of the presentations online.

Also, be sure to read "Revisiting Corporate Charters", our paper on how corporate charters could be used as an instrument of public policy. The paper was published by Corporation2020 for their 2007 conference in Boston. The paper is a sequel to an earlier paper called "Corporations and the Public Purpose."

In 2007, the Center for Corporate Policy helped develop the Strategic Corporate Initiative -- a long-term approach to bringing corporations back under public control. To learn more about the SCI report, see Corporate Ethics International's description of the project.

One of the policies identified in the SCI report as key was Public Funding of Elections, which would make it easier to challenge corporate-funded candidates in elections. Public funding has been successful in a growing number of states and cities. Federal candidates should co-sponsor or pledge their support for the Fair Elections Now Act (S. 1285) and (H.R. 7022) -- which were both reintroduced in the current session of Congress with bi-partisan support. To learn more, see You Street and Public Campaign.

Additional CCP Topics, Projects and Investigations:

CCP's List of Recommended Reading
Size Matters: The Failure to Address Concentrated Economic Power
Corporate Bribery Page
Congressional Ethics Reform
Wal-Mart Information Page.
Supreme Court nominations.
A Loaded Chamber: Big Business Attacks Sarbanes-Oxley and Other Post-Enron Reforms
2006 Budget Proposal.
The 2004 elections
State and Local Policies.