Republican Women Senators Vote in Support of Al Franken’s Anti-Rape Amendment
November 1, 2009 by Alison
How do Republican women fare when it comes to women’s issues? Just ask Al Franken.
Al Franken, the Democratic Junior Senator from Minnesota and former SNL comedian, recently introduced an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that protects the rights of rape victims who work for federal contractors overseas. The amendment has recently passed, in part due to the support of our Republican women senators.
The personal story that inspired Franken to introduce this amendment is absolutely horrific. In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones, a young American woman working in Iraq, was drugged and gang raped by her coworkers at KBR. KBR is a defense contractor and at the time a subsidiary of Halliburton. What followed after the rape was an apparent cover-up by KBR and Jones was even placed in a confinement container under armed guards. She was told that she could not leave and could not make any phone calls.
Two years after the rape, Jones is still waiting for justice. Back in the states Jones learned that she could not press charges because she had signed an employment contract with KBR stating that any sexual assault charges could only be dealt with in private arbitration and not in a lawful court.
You can learn more about Jamie Leigh Jones and her story in this 20/20 episode:
Franken’s amendment was devised to put an end to such outrageous injustice.
From CNN:
The amendment stopped federal funding for those defense contractors who used mandatory arbitration clauses to deny victims of assault the right to bring their case to court. It passed by a 68-30 margin with nine Republicans joining each voting Democrat.
All four Republican women crossed party lines and voted in favor of the amendment: Susan Collins (R-ME), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME).
Five male Republican Senators also voted in favor of the amendment which is in sharp contrast with the 30 Republican men who voted against this amendment, including former presidential candidate, John McCain.
So let’s get this straight: 100% of our Republican Women Senators voted in support of an anti-rape amendment and only 5 out of 35 Republican male Senators voted in support of the Amendment.
Still think gender doesn’t matter?
This is not the first time Republican women have crossed party lines to vote in favor of policies that benefit women.
In January of 2009 the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was passed, giving women the right to sue, without unfair time limits, in the face of discriminatory lower pay. All four of our Republican women Senators voted in favor of the Act while only one male Republican Senator voted in favor. Without the support of our female Republican Senators, the Ledbetter Act would not have passed.
Good news, indeed!
Passing this one around today….
SYD
Politically revealing US Senate votes regarding who is indifferent to rape of female co-workers by employees of Halliburton and KBR. And who is not.
Thanks to Senator Al Franken for introducing the Amendment.
How frightening the Republican Senators opposed to the Amendment could be so confident their vote would not have negative ramifications for them. Will women in their home states vote for them again?
I was interested to note that two Democrats did not vote on the amendment. One was Sen. Byrd, whom we know has been in poor health. The other was Arlen Specter, perhaps reluctant to go against his real colleagues in the GOP. I’d like to know his excuse for not voting, along with the reasons the 30 male Republicans give for voting against the amendment. The people have a right to know.
Ugh. I don’t have time to fully address this right now, but just quickly: this post completely mischaracterizes the nature of the KBR contract. Jamie Leigh’s contract does not, as this post suggests, prevent her from filing criminal sexual assault charges in court. An employment contract cannot nullify the ability to prosecute a criminal offense.
The contract Jamie Leigh signed stipulated that she could not pursue a civil suit in court against the company and would have to use arbitration instead. Whether or not that’s fair is certainly up for discussion, but please realize that it is the foot dragging of the DOJ (under both Bush and Obama) that has kept Jamie Leigh from having her day in criminal court.
This case is horrific enough without resorting to partisan talking points and hyperbole.
If liberal women haven’t figured this out by now, I don’t hold out a lot of hope for them.
Thanks for that clarification Jenn. I was about to dispute that. No contract can nullify prosecution of a criminal offense. It is still very strange for there to be an attempt at silencing of a sexual assault in a work contract. Was it written by rapists?
The employment contract probably stated that any issues( not just assault) arising from the employment must be brought under mandatory arbitration and not court. I have looked at dozens of these…if you have an employment contract with your employer, take the time to read it…generally these clauses are found towards the end of the contract…you’ll be surprised to find that you too may have signed an arbitration agreement. I do not know why the lady did not pursue her rights under arbitration to obtain recompense…The story is silent as to that…but the criminal issues resides with DOJ- Jenn is correct- the are ther foot draggers.
This however raises anew the issue of gender voting that I have been preaching since TNA started…Gender must trump agenda for you to obtain the rights and power which ought to be inherently yours. The males will not cross lines to help you- that is the lesson of this vote- you need to achieve gender parity-Vote Palin, Bachman, Whitman,Fiona,Pelosi, whomever and whenever you can
I certainly believe in voting along gender lines. The problem lies in trying to convince women to support women.
Jenn Q,
Thank you for the correction. That clarifies things.
But I still find the scenario to be outrageous, in regard to the civil suit, and I’m very proud of our Republican Women Senators for voting in support of Al Franken’s amendment.
Alison, congratulation on picking up the gender situation in the vote. I tried something similar with the recent vote on hate crime legislation. there was also party crossover which evened the result out 17 to 18. all the nay votes from democrates came from male senators. the republican crossover was gender mixed. one can argue, that the hate vote like the Al Franken amendment were attached to military spending and the nay sayers were against the military spending. i don’t buy it since traditionally in the public debate female voices were in majority against war.
another important issue here is that the assault happened with a date rape drug. and this practice is increasing on college campuses and other places. a few weeks ago the new York Times had an article on a mennonite community in Bolivia, where a groups of males within the group used a sprayable drug to commit rapes undetected for over a year until they were caught. it changed lif i the community drastically. trustdeficit in the community. they did not find themselves able to punish these guys in the community but handed them over to the Bolivian police. I wonder where our media are who should have these stories all over to warn women, to never accept drinks from somebody. and i wonder from where these drugs come, why are they so easy accessible on the market?
Marille, push comes to shove, the only thing a woman can do to make sure nothing like this happens to her is to move to a planet where there are no men. I’ve solved the problem by just not having anhy in my life; I’ve got enough crap to do and keep straight in my life already, I cannot afford the extra cycles to play the “rapist or not?” judgment game when it’s far easier and more efficient to just obviate having to make the decision.
Next time you go to a party with friends, try never ever letting your drink out of your sight or never ever taking anything from anyone else.
point well taken Janis, how are we bringing the message to every girl and woman on this planet.