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MinnPostWASHINGTON, D.C. — An amendment offered by Sen. Al Franken that would withhold defense contracts from contractors if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court has been included in the final Defense Department appropriations bill, which is scheduled for a floor vote in the House today.
The measure was prompted by the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, a former Halliburton/KBR employee who has alleged that she was raped by several co-workers while working in Iraq in 2005. Jones told reporters in October, after the amendment passed in the Senate, that its adoption "means that every tear shed to go public and repeat my story over and over again to make a difference for other women was worth it."
"Jamie Leigh Jones is a strong, courageous woman, who used her own horrific experience to inspire change. I am honored to know her, and honored to have been a part of her cause," Franken said today.
If the Defense appropriations bill is approved as expected, the inclusion would be a major win for Franken, given the political firestorm that erupted shortly after the amendment passed in the Senate. Several of the Republicans who voted against the measure were angrily confronted by activists who accused them of being "pro-rape." They, in turn, directed their ire at Franken, accusing him of not doing enough to shield them from such accusations (though Franken has said repeatedly he thinks characterizations of GOP senators as "pro-rape" are unfair).
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http://www.minnpost.com/derekwallbank/2009/12/16/14359/franken%E2%80%99s_amendment_on_rape_included_in_appropriations_bill
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