UPI, Washington, May, May 25, 2010 25 — U.S. lawmakers co-sponsored a measure that prohibits the Defense Department from doing business with energy companies active in Iran, an amendment says.

U.S. Reps. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., and Ike Skelton, D-Mo., proposed amending a defense-spending bill to bar the Pentagon from buying fuel from companies with ties to Iran.

’The Secretary of Defense may not enter into any contract with an entity that engages in commercial activity in the energy sector of Iran,’ The Wall Street Journal quoted the amendment as reading.

The Government Accountability Office in a May report disclosed that the Pentagon handed out contracts worth nearly $900 million to companies doing business in the Iranian energy sector. Italian energy giant ENI, Thai oil company PTT Public Co. Ltd., Spanish oil and gas company Repsol and French supermajor Total were listed in the GAO report.

Companies doing more than $20 million worth of business in the Iranian energy sector are subject to a ban from U.S. federal contracts under the Iran Sanctions Act.

Tehran said any sanctions on its energy sector by Washington would be viewed as an act of aggression, meaning the McKeon-Skelton measure is unlikely to pass, the Journal adds

Aides in McKeon’s office told the Journal the amendment includes language giving the Pentagon veto power over sanctions if it couldn’t find other fuel options.

A March report on similar activity found that the U.S. federal government has doled out more than $107 billion to U.S. multinational companies while they were working in Iran.