House Passes Schakowsky/Price Amendment to Provide Oversight to Private Military Contractors

HOUSE PASSES SCHAKOWSKY/PRICE AMENDMENT TO PROVIDE OVERSIGHT TO PRIVATE MILITARY CONTRACTORS

WASHINGTON, DC–The U.S. House of Representatives today unanimously passed a contracting oversight amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and David Price (D-NC) offered this amendment to help provide oversight of private contractors deployed with U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. The use of private contractors deployed with US military personnel overseas, in particular armed security-contractors, is one of the biggest grey areas of the entire war effort.

"I am thrilled that our amendment is now attached to the defense authorization bill,... said U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky. "This bill will now provide much needed transparency and oversight to an industry that has gone by completely unchecked. Under this bill, we will finally be able to see the contracts and get the answers to basic questions about private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American public has a right to know where and how their taxpayers' dollars are being spent....

The National Defense Authorization Act would create a database that would collect descriptions of the contracts, including the value of the contracts, amount of overhead spent, total number of personnel employed on the contracts and other general information that would give Congress a better understanding of the role contractors are playing. The Schakowsky/Price Amendment will make certain that Members of Congress will have access to this database and that they can request to view individual contracts. Currently, Congress is unable to provide oversight of these contracts because they do not have access to them.

There are almost as many contractors in Iraq as soldiers. In fact, contractors compose the second largest force in Iraq after the U.S. military. In December 2006, the Washington Post reported that there are approximately 100,000 government contractors operating in Iraq, not counting subcontractors, a total that is approaching the size of the U.S. military force there. As many as 25,000 of these contractors are armed "security contractors..., and they seem to be entirely outside the reach of the law.