C.L. – Cochran, Wicker votes wrong
The Mississippi delegation to the U.S. Senate voted wrong on an amendment that protects some very basic rights.
The Senate passed an amendment Tuesday prohibiting the U.S. Department of Defense from contracting with companies like Halliburton if they require employees to resolve sexual assault, battery and discrimination allegations and other claims through arbitration rather than in courts of law.
Mississippi’s Republican U.S. Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker voted against that amendment along with 30 other GOP senators. The Senate voted 68-30 to attach the amendment sponsored by Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota to a larger defense spending bill.
Franken told The Associated Press that he sponsored the measure in response to the case of former KBR/Halliburton employee Jamie Leigh Jones, who alleges she was raped by co-workers while in Iraq in 2005. She went public with her story in 2007.
Clarion-Ledger
10/12/9
Magnolia Tribune
