GOP blocks war-profiteering amendment

The Leahy/Daschle amendment to the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill would
have created new penalties -- including up to 20 years in jail -- for government
contractors convicted of inflating the cost of goods or services. It was
defeated 52-46.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., later filed a motion to invoke
cloture on the defense authorization bill, setting a deadline of 1 p.m. Thursday
for any further amendments to be filed. The cloture vote could be held as early
as Friday.

Daschle and Leahy introduced the war-profiteering amendment in response to
growing accusations by Defense Department whistleblowers and House and Senate
Democrats that Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, has
overcharged the government for a host of services provided to the military in
Iraq and Afghanistan.

A clearly uncomfortable Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va.,
rallied Republicans against the amendment, warning the provisions were simply
too vague to be placed into federal law.

Democrats appear to have renewed their interest in controversies around
Halliburton's activities in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last several weeks. Sen.
Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., have led the growing
chorus of Democratic voices in Congress seeking investigations into whether
Cheney played a role in granting a $2.5 billion contract to Halliburton, as well
as into the accusations that the company bilked the government out of millions
of dollars in their contracts.

Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., was the sole Democrat to vote with Republicans. Sens.
Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, reluctantly voted against
the amendment after being lobbied by GOP colleagues on the Senate floor.

Although presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts was making a rare
appearance in the Capitol during the vote, he did not vote on the amendment,
saying he "had some meetings."

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0604/061704cdam1.htm