0

U.S. FAR 52.222-50 (b)(2) states:

Contractors, contractor employees, and their agents shall not … Procure commercial sex acts during the period of performance of the contract;

My naive reading of this law is that it broadly prohibits employees from procuring commercial sex acts while their employer holds any federal contract — even if the procurement would occur:

  • on the employee's own time, in their capacity as a private person, and
  • while the employee is not on work-related travel, and
  • otherwise legally in the jurisdiction of the act, and
  • otherwise legally in the jurisdiction the employee is domiciled in.

— which seems a bit absurd considering that FAR 52.222-50 is supposed to prevent slave labor from being used to build jets and tanks.

Am I misreading this, does it really mean that, or has this never been clarified either way?

Improve this question
10
  • Are you suggesting that prohibiting someone from hiring a prostitute is comparable to making them a slave?
    – Barmar
    Commented Aug 1 at 15:33
  • It's already a federal crime to solicit a prostitute. This clause simply extends that to contractors, who may not be under US criminal jurisdiction. I think the idea of rules like this is to extend US human rights protections to jurisdictions of foreign contractors.
    – Barmar
    Commented Aug 1 at 15:36
  • @Barmar I think the question is fundamentally about can US legislation prohibit you from doing something which is illegal within the US, but perfectly legal in another jurisdiction. Prostitution is one such thing, and is legal (and regulated) in many jurisdictions.
    – Peter M
    Commented Aug 1 at 15:40
  • @Barmar >Are you suggesting that prohibiting someone from hiring a prostitute is comparable to making them a slave?< No, and I'm not sure how you read that into what I wrote. I said it seems absurd that a regulation that's supposed to prevent federal contracts from subsidizing slave labor also prohibits tangentially involved office workers from procuring recreational services from non-enslaved vendors in accordance with applicable law (dbph.nv.gov) on their own time.
    – JamesTheAwesomeDude
    Commented Aug 1 at 15:41
  • Sorry, I misunderstood your "prevent slave labor" point, I thought you were saying that it creates slave labor instead of preventing it.
    – Barmar
    Commented Aug 1 at 15:44

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

I took this training just the other day. (DoD GS civilian). 'Combatting Trafficking in Persons'

It specifically calls out hiring sex workers in a country where it would otherwise be legal for anyone else. "You may not..."

On duty or off duty, makes no difference.

This is for active duty military, govt civilians, and contractors.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .