An amendment to the Senate Defense Appropriations bill for FY2010 that was proposed on October 1st by Senator Al Franken and co-sponsored by Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) was brought to the Senate floor today (info on the Franken Amendment may be found HERE ).

Today was the day that the Senate finished up its debate on Defense Appropriations (the House already passed their version of it) and the last of the amendments were voted on. The Franken Amendment was one of those that was voted on today. The text of this amendment reads:

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.

Although the legalese of this amendment is quite hard to fully read, it is clear to me that this amendment slams the breaks on the illegal and unethical activities committed by Halliburton and KBR in their contracts overseas.

The motion passed 68-30 (as you can see HERE )! Today's a good day in Congress and it's not often that one says that.

In other news, Thomas Perez was confirmed today as Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice by a vote of 72-22. He has been waiting in the wings since he was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 4th, but his nomination was held up by Republicans due to his record on immigration and civil rights cases.

Update: A video where Senator Franken calls out KBR for preventing a rape victim in the military from seeking a redress in a court of law. This is where he proposed his amendment.

