Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)
Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo says his vote against an amendment that would ban the Pentagon from awarding contracts to companies that require employees to agree to arbitration to settle claims related to sexual assault was a vote against the measure’s dismantling of the practice of arbitration, not a vote against prosecution of sex crimes.
Crapo, fellow Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, and other senators have caught flak for voting against the so-called Franken Amendment, which passed the Senate on a bipartisan 68-30 vote earlier this month.
The amendment was brought to light by the 2005 gang rape of 20-year-old Jamie Leigh Jones, who worked for KBR, a Pentagon contractor in Iraq. Jones has spent the past four years seeking a chance to take her case to court, and she has become an advocate for arbitration reform.
Sen. Crapo says some supporters of the amendment used the sensitivity of the issue to wrongly portray what the vote was about.
US Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) comments on Franken’s amendment
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The Idaho Republican has long been a strong advocate of protecting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault during his time in Washington, D.C., and says if that was the sole issue of the amendment, the vote would have been different.
Crapo continues
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Sen. Risch, while condemning the attacks on Jones, has also defended his vote. Risch pointed out that he began fighting on behalf of abuse victims at the start of his political career, when he served as Ada County prosecutor. (Idaho Statesman)
