Senate votes to require Pentagon oversight of Iraq contracts

The Pentagon, not private contractors, would oversee contracts for reconstruction projects in Iraq under an amendment approved by voice vote Monday in the Senate.

Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota offered the amendment to the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill to stop the Pentagon's practice of outsourcing the management of many reconstruction and security functions.

Dorgan said the amendment would reduce the potential for conflict of interest among oversight contractors and the companies they are hired to manage.

"How do you oversee a contract of another company with whom you have an already-established business relationship?" Dorgan asked.

Wyden and Dorgan said their amendment stipulates that current oversight contracts will not be renewed, and that the Pentagon cannot award similar contracts in the future.

Senate Armed Services ranking member Carl Levin, D-Mich., supported the amendment, noting that exemplifies it a wider problem -- the loss of Pentagon acquisition workers, including those who manage defense contracts.

Levin said the issue is likely to heat up during conference, where House lawmakers are more likely to support the Bush administration's push to reduce the Pentagon's bureaucracy by outsourcing civilian jobs.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., was successful in amending the bill to require the Defense Department to reimburse family members of U.S. troops in Iraq who privately purchased armored vests and other equipment that the military was unable to provide. Dodd noted that the Pentagon opposed his amendment, but added that he had addressed a number of its concerns by placing specific caps on the amount of funds that can be repaid and the type of equipment that can be purchased and later reimbursed. He also said the amendment applies only to purchases made during specific periods.

Although Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said he supported the amendment, he emphasized that the government's failure to fully equip some troops was not widespread among military units deployed to Iraq. Dodd's amendment passed 91-0.

Dodd also offered an amendment to prohibit government contractors from interrogating prisoners. Dodd said government personnel should be responsible for that job.

But the amendment was not brought to a vote after Warner took issue with some elements of Dodd's proposal, noting that it could affect the Pentagon's ability to send contractors into battle in support of U.S. military missions in forward-operating locations.

But senators did adopt an amendment to require the Defense Department to compensate 17 former U.S. prisoners of war tortured in Iraq at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison during the Persian Gulf War, before compensating Iraqis who suffered torture and abuse at the hands of U.S. military personnel and private contractors last year. That amendment was offered by Minority Whip Harry Reid, D-Nev., and approved on a voice vote.