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An amendment that would prevent the government from working with contractors who deny victims of sexual assault the right to bring their case in court has survived attempts to dull its impact and seems poised to become law.

The Senate Committee on Appropriation passed, on Tuesday, a defense appropriations bill that included the "anti-rape" amendment introduced by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.). The legislation was intended to address and prevent a reoccurrence of the assault and rape that Jamie Leigh Jones, a defense contractor for the company KBR, alleged was committed by her fellow employees. But the amendment became a subject of debate after the Department of Defense, Republicans in the Senate, and even the committee chairman, Sen. Dan Inouye (D-Hawaii) raised concerns that it would leave contractors over exposed to lawsuits.

The final product, in the end, proved remarkably strong. According to a Franken aide, the substance of the language "is unchanged." Under the amendment the government would not be able to do business with companies that deny court hearings for victims of either assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress or negligent hiring practice. The controversial Title VII provision, which would allow victims of assault to sue the employers of the alleged perpetrator and not just the perpetrator himself or herself, remains in the bill. Meanwhile, the threshold at which companies will be subjected to the legislation is set at those who have contracts totaling $1 million or more.

All told, the legislation would affect all major and many minor contractors, forcing them to choose between allowing litigation for their employees or forfeiting the hundreds of millions in dollars that are doled out annually in contracts by the federal government.

The Franken amendment includes a national security waiver, meaning that the Department of Defense could circumvent the law if it is deemed dangerous to U.S. safety. But, for that to happen, the Secretary of Defense would have to "personally explain why the waiver was used to Congress and at that point make it public," the Franken aide explained.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/frankens-anti-rape-amendm_n_394171.htmlAn amendment that would prevent the government from working with contractors who deny... more

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The Daily Show Staff Extracurricular Projects
DAVID JAVERBAUM

David Javerbaum is currently a Consulting Producer for Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His work for that program, including four years as Head Writer and two as Executive Producer, has earned him eleven Emmy Awards, two additional Emmy nominations, two Peabody Awards, and Television Critics Awards for both Best Comedy and Best News Show.

He is one of the primary authors of the show's textbook parody America (The Book), which sold over 2.5 million copies, spent a year on The New York Times Bestseller List (including 15 at #1), won the James Thurber Prize for American Humor (his second), won the 2005 Quill Awards for Best Humor Book and Audiobook, and was named Publishers' Weekly's 2004 Book of the Year; the audiobook won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. His new book, What to Expect When You're Expected: A Fetus's Guide to Its First Three Trimesters, will come out in October. He was also Emmy-nominated for his work as a writer for The Late Show with David Letterman and wrote for the 2006 Academy Awards. He spent three years writing for the satirical newspaper and website The Onion, conceiving its 1999 New York Times #1 bestseller Our Dumb Century and contributing numerous articles to it and two other Onion books. His work as a lyricist earned him a 2008 Tony nomination for his work on the Broadway adaptation of John Waters' film Cry-Baby, itself nominated for Best Musical. He wrote the lyrics for Stephen Colbert's Christmas special, A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All, featuring eight original songs sung by artists including Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson and Toby Keith. He also won the prestigious Kleban Award for Lyrics in 2005, and was the lyricist and co-librettist of Suburb, which won the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater; its 2001 Off-Broadway production earned Best Off-Broadway Musical nominations from the Outer Critics Circle, the Lucille Lortel Awards, and the Drama League (for which it was nominated as Best Musical, Broadway or Off-). He is a graduate of NYU's Graduate School of Musical Theater Composition and Harvard University, where he wrote for the humor magazine The Harvard Lampoon and co-wrote two of that school's Hasty Pudding musicals. He lives in Manhattan with his wife Debra and their daughters Kate and Sara. His hobbies include the succinct encapsulation of his achievements.The Daily Show Staff Extracurricular Projects DAVID JAVERBAUM David Javerbaum is... more

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