Dems want answers on Ingersoll Rand contracts

Congressional Democrats want answers from the Obama administration about whether a business giant now incorporated abroad should be getting federal contracts.

Seven Democrats in all, from both the House and the Senate, said they were concerned about a Bloomberg report that found that a senior Homeland Security Department official allowed Ingersoll Rand to receive contracts.

{mosads}The Democrats noted that federal law bars companies who moved offshore to lower their tax bill, while changing little of their business practices, from getting contracts.

Ingersoll Rand, whose brands include Trane air conditioners and Club Car golf carts, first moved from the U.S. to Bermuda in 2001 before settling in Ireland in 2009. But most of the company’s operations have remained in the U.S.

The ban on federal contracts, the Democrats wrote, is there “to prevent companies like Ingersoll Rand from benefiting from federal contracts after abandoning the United States to avoid their tax responsibilities.”

“While we recognize that Congress can, and should, do more to strengthen our laws, we are concerned that Ingersoll Rand is not being held accountable under our existing laws,” the lawmakers added in a letter to the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general.

The Democrats who signed the letter were Reps. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Lloyd Doggett (Texas) and Sandy Levin (Mich.), as well as Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Sens. Jack Reed (R.I.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.).

According to the Bloomberg report, Ingersoll Rand argued that American trade agreements nullified the contracts ban.