As lawmakers tried to work out the details of holding foreign contractors accountable for accidental deaths of U.S. service members in Iraq, they found themselves trying to answer a bigger question.

Why does the military continue to give contracts to companies that have been involved in negligent deaths? And, if those foreign contractors can't be forced to make amends in accidental deaths, what's the point of the military requiring them to carry liability insurance?

"Why are we requiring them to have liability insurance if we can't sue them?" asked Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee on contracting oversight. "That seems kind of dumb to me."

The subcommittee conducted the hearing Wednesday because, after Army Lt. Col. Dominic "Rocky" Baragona was killed in 2003 when an allegedly negligent driver crashed into his Humvee, courts found that the driver's company — Kuwait & Gulf Link Transport — could not be sued for damages because U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over Kuwaiti companies. There was no criminal investigation by either the company or the Army.

Justice "has not been found because KGL has refused to answer in any form to the charge of a negligent driver," said Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah.

Uldric Fiore, suspension and debarment official for the Army Legal Services Agency, said the Army found that KGL acted within its legal rights, and therefore, there was nothing Army officials could do about Baragona's death. However appalling the case, "it was hard for me to call that misconduct," he said.

The Defense Department continues to contract with KGL, Fiore said.

Bills introduced in both the House and the Senate seek to have contractors voluntarily agree up front to personal jurisdiction in cases involving serious bodily injury, sexual assault, rape and death.

But the legislation may be tricky. Ralph Steinhardt, professor of law and international affairs at The George Washington University Law School, said the constitutionality of the bills may be challenged if contractors are forced to submit to a "voluntary" condition that is mandated by Congress. And Richard Ginman, deputy director for program acquisition and contingency contracting for the Defense Department, said the military needs the flexibility to hire any contractor in a war zone.

As the Senate looked into the issue, they discovered that the Defense Department's Office of the Inspector General reported 2,768 foreign contractor convictions for such violations from 2004 to March 2009. But only 708 companies and individuals have been blocked from contracts with the Defense Department.