House Passes Schakowsky's Contracting Amendment

HOUSE PASSES SCHAKOWSKY'S CONTRACTING AMENDMENT

Washington, D.C.–The U.S. House of Representatives today passed H.R. 2740, the MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007, which included an amendment offered by U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). Schakowsky's amendment, which passed the House unanimously, requires detailed information about the charges and legal action that have been brought against contractors. The bill now awaits consideration in the U.S. Senate.

"Today, the House took a major step toward bringing some level of accountability and transparency to an industry that has gone virtually unchecked for years,... said U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky. "After spending billions of dollars on private military contractors, U.S. taxpayers have a right to know if those contractors are engaging in criminal behavior and what, if anything, the government has done to address these illegal activities. The lethal and reckless actions of some private security contractors have put our armed forces at risk and undermined our mission in Iraq....

The legislation, which Schakowsky co-sponsored, takes companies like Blackwater USA out of the murky legal limbo in which they have been operating, and holds them accountable under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act for possible criminal misconduct. The legislation also requires the Justice Department to make a detailed report to Congress the includes the number of complaints against contractors it has received, the number of investigations it has begun, the number of criminal cases it has opened, and the result of those cases.

Schakowsky's amendment expands the reporting requirement to include a description of the charges that have been brought against contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a description of the legal action taken as a result of those charges. There are over 180,000 private contractors operating inside Iraq and Afghanistan and only two contractors have ever been charged with a crime.