The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill this afternoon that would bar the awarding of federal contracts to colleges that ban military recruiters from their campuses. The provision, part of a larger bill to limit no-bid federal contracts, was inserted at the last minute by Rep. Tom Davis, a Republican from Virginia.

In reality, the legislation, HR 1362, would have little effect, even if it is eventually signed into law, because Congress passed a measure in 1994, known as the Solomon Amendment, that prevents the Pentagon from awarding grants or contracts to universities that bar military recruiters. The law has since been expanded to include funds from other federal agencies, and in 2006 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Solomon Amendment.

The new legislation passed the House by a vote of 309 to 104, even though many Democrats disagreed with the federal restriction on funds for institutions that bar military recruiters. In the end, the Democrats seemed to have been more interested in the original reason for the bill: questions over no-bid contracts in Iraq given to Halliburton, the defense contractor once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.