[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25779]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               PROTECT COWORKERS FROM ASSAULT AND ATTACK

  (Mr. MELANCON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, many of us have heard the terrible story 
of Jamie Leigh Jones, the employee of a U.S. defense contractor who was 
brutally attacked and sexually assaulted by coworkers while working in 
Iraq in 2005. Instead of being allowed to seek justice, Jamie Leigh was 
held in a shipping container by company employees so she couldn't 
report the crime.
  When Jamie Leigh returned to the United States, she learned that a 
clause in her contract barred her from taking her case to court. 
Instead, it forced her into a company-run arbitration process; the same 
company that failed to protect her in the first place.
  It is our responsibility to make sure that this horrific story can 
never happen again. No American citizen should ever have to sign away 
his or her rights to justice in order to get a job. Not a dime of 
taxpayer money should go to companies that would rather sweep an 
assault under the rug than allow our justice system to work.
  The Franken amendment will forbid Federal dollars from going to 
companies that engage in these practices. If we fail to enact this 
measure, we have failed to protect the rights and values we were sworn 
to uphold when we took our oath of office. We cannot let this happen 
again.

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