Last week, two trailblazers in Congress, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D - IL) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (D - VT) introduced the Stop Outsourcing Our Security Act, a bill aimed at rolling back the use of private military contractors in warfare. Almost every week, scandals are emerging over the presence of private military contractors - like Blackwater (now called Xe Services LLC) - in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. Recent news that Blackwater billed the government for prostitution is just the latest in a series of damaging revelations, highlighted by Blackwater's massacre of 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians at Nisour Square in September 2007.

Not only was Blackwater suspected to have participated in the abusive interrogation of detainees at Abu Ghraib, the company also helps to plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and al Qaeda operatives inside Pakistan. The Obama administration has boosted the number of hired guns in Iraq and Afghanistan to unprecedented levels, and the number keeps on growing. Yet, without a system in place to hold these companies accountable to the rule of law, the growing numbers of civilian contractors operating in America's wars abroad continue to operate with nearly free reign, unbound by the U.S. Code of Military Justice or international law.

The effort to hold private military contractors accountable to the law is long overdue. This piece of legislation calls for the U.S. to end its reliance on private security contractors, and it would prohibit the use of private contractors for military, security, law enforcement, intelligence, and armed rescue functions altogether. It would also increase transparency over any remaining contracts by increasing reporting requirements and Congressional oversight.