Letter to my Senator

I must strongly protest your recent no vote on S.AMDT.2588 which prohibits funding to defense contractors "To prohibit the use of funds for any Federal contract with Halliburton Company, KBR, Inc., any of their subsidiaries or affiliates, or any other contracting party if such contractor or a subcontractor at any tier under such contract requires that employees or independent contractors sign mandatory arbitration clauses regarding certain claims."

This is in response to the rape of an employee of Halliburton while in Iraq who was locked in a shipping container and subjected to intimidation by the company after she stated that she would report the incident. It took the intervention of a US House member in order to get her released from her false imprisonment. The victim also needed reconstructive surgery to correct the damage resulting from the incident. The vcitim of this incident Jamie Leigh Jones, has testified before the Senate concerning what happened in this incident and the subsequent coverup by Halliburton.

How in all decency can you vote against this amendment is beyond me. A defense contractor is not above the law and neither is the government. What you have done is sanction rape or other violations of the law by American contractors. No one is safe if this is the case as your vote would have, if the amendment had not passed, placed such contractors above the law. It is incidents such as this that have caused me to loose any faith in the decency and common sense which may have existed in the Senate or the Republican party. This vote, even if on the matter of principle, is scandalous and should be repudiated. That fact that the Senate even has to vote on this is scandalous. Such companies should have the common sense to have owned up to what its employees did. Instead they resorted to subterfuge and evasion to cover up the activities of its employees. I have to wonder what other activities have been covered up by this company and what actions YOU would take to investigate what other activities have been covered up. However, I would not see you, given your record on these matters, launching such an investigation.

In short, I am deeply offended by your lack of interest and your vote on this issue before the Senate. I would hope that in your subsequent votes in the Senate, you would use more common sense and decorum in such matters.

I look forward to an explanation of your reasoning in voting the way you did on this amendment. As my elected representative and one who speaks for me in the Senate, I would hope that it is a good one.