Franken's First Amendment Passes Senate

Minneapolis-St Paul City Pages ^ | 10/7/09 | Emily Kaiser

[steve-b]

Sen. Al Franken finally has a piece of legislation under his belt, signed by the U.S. Senate. His amendment passed through a roll call vote Tuesday night. We're all for getting things done in a Congress that appears to be stalling on anything and everything possible.

Franken's amendment stops defense contractors from receiving federal funding if they use mandatory arbitration clauses that prevent victims of assault from going to court. Nine Republicans voted with Democrats on the legislation for a final vote of 68-30. The amendment was part of the 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill....

"The story came to my attention of Jamie Leigh Jones who, when she was 19, went to Iraq to work for [defense contractor] KBR and she was put in the barracks with 400 men and was sexually harassed," Franken told the Huffington Post in a brief interview shortly after the vote. "She complained. But they didn't do anything about it. She was drugged and gang raped and they locked her up in a shipping container. She tried to sue KBR and they said you have a mandatory arbitration clause in your contract. She tried to fight back and said this is ridiculous. She took it to court and they have been fighting her for three years."

Franken says he hopes this is just the first step in his effort to add more oversight to contractors that receive federal funding.

[Brilliant]

I’m all in favor of anything that blocks private enterprise from doing business with the federal government.

[VRWCmember]

Having said that, the legislation is commendable. There's something suspect about a company that would make anyone, especially a 19-yr old female, sign that type of contract knowing full well the circumstances they might encounter in a war zone.

No, this legislation is NOT commendable. Most defense contractors us arbitration clauses in their terms and conditions for one very reasonable and simple reason: protecting themselves from the extortion of exhorbitant legal lotto litigation. The arbitration clause does not necessarily prevent litigation later, but requires that any claims must go through arbitration first. You can't go straight to litigation lotto.

[BenLurkin]

Exactly.

[Vaduz]

Oversight = We will tell you what you can and can’t do.

[equalitybeforethelaw]

Why is this limited to only defense contractors? Arbitration is an entire genre of law introduced to our legal system to force management to reach a decision with unions. It is heavily used in union states. The basis of it is that management is not allowed to hire free labor when a dispute/strike between labor and management occurs. Basically, heads the union wins, tails the union wins. Its called union state rules.

[djork]

Actually, he’s been after this cause for a while and has held hearings on the arbitration issue.

[steve-b]

So what’s the problem? Corporations can do what they want. It’s just that, as always, if they want Uncle Sam’s penny they must dance to Uncle Sam’s tune.

[camp_steveo]

How do you know what I know? Have you read the Amendment? I did.

Don’t assume to know what I know....sheesh

[Eagle Eye]

I’m all in favor of anything that blocks private enterprise from doing business with the federal government.

Unless I missed your /s tag...if private enterprise does not supply the federal government with offices, vehicles, supplies, guns, beans, and bullets, etc then the fedgov will have to either purchase abroad or go into business themselves, won't they?

[nyconse]

Thanks for your reply as a Mom of an 18 year old girl, I find this terrible. I don’t like Franken either.

[astyanax]

I’m all in favor of anything that blocks private enterprise from doing business with the federal government.
I'm more concerned with keeping the federal government out of private enterprise.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I thought Democrats didn’t consider rape as being drugged and forced to have sex?

Or was that rape-rape?

[astyanax]

Could you provide a link to the actual amendment?
Everything I’ve read regarding this (other than the feel good, short on facts, puff pieces like this one) makes it appear to be beneficial only to lawyers.

Also, if an employee of GM rapes someone, should GM, the union and the federal government (because of the bailout) be held liable in a civil suit?

[nyconse]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=3977702 A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident. (ABC News, "20/20") More Photos Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job. "Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told. In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave. Jones described the container as sparely furnished with a bed, table and lamp. Related PHOTOS: KBR Employees: Co. Covered Up Sex Assault "It felt like prison," says Jones, who told her story to ABC News as part of an upcoming "20/20" investigation. "I was upset; I was curled up in a ball on the bed; I just could not believe what had happened." Finally, Jones says, she convinced a sympathetic guard to loan her a cell phone so she could call her father in Texas. "I said, 'Dad, I've been raped. I don't know what to do. I'm in this container, and I'm not able to leave,'" she said. Her father called their congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas. "We contacted the State Department first," Poe told ABCNews.com, "and told them of the urgency of rescuing an American citizen" -- from her American employer. Poe says his office contacted the State Department, which quickly dispatched agents from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Jones' camp, where they rescued her from the container. According to her lawsuit, Jones was raped by "several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally." Jones told ABCNews.com that an examination by Army doctors showed she had been raped "both vaginally and anally," but that the rape kit disappeared after it was handed over to KBR security officers. 1 | 2 |

[nyconse]

The company hires the arbitrators. Look, there is a loophole that allows these men to get away with this. I want them prosecuted. I don’t think such contract should exist.

[nyconse]

It is not limited to defense contractors.

[Canedawg]

Criminal prosecution has NOTHING to do with an arbitration clause in a contract that determines civil libility.

[nyconse]

It is still about a young 19 year old who was raped and because of some loopholes these guys got away with. I hope they fix this it is unacceptable. These guys should not be above the law.

[nyconse]

They can’t prosecute it criminally because of a stupid loophole which must be fixed. Read the article I provided. There is more information. I know it is civil court and I hope she wins big...disgusting situation.

[Canedawg]

I read the article- twice now.

“She tried to sue KBR and they said you have a mandatory arbitration clause in your contract. She tried to fight back and said this is ridiculous. She took it to court and they have been fighting her for three years.”

It says nothing about preventing criminal prosecution, and in fact I’d think such a clause would be illegal.

This is about her suing civilly, not about a criminal prosecution. Apples and oranges.