National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017

Floor Speech

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Mrs. GILLIBRAND. 4310, notwithstanding rule XXII, and the Senate vote in relation to the amendment; and that the amendment be subject to a 60-affirmative-vote threshold, with no second-degree amendments in order prior to the vote.

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Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Madam President, I rise to speak about the amendment.

Under our current military justice system, when a servicemember is accused of sexual assault, the decision to prosecute isn't actually made by a trained prosecutor or a lawyer of any kind. In fact, it is made by a colonel or a brigadier general or another high-ranking military officer.

Our commanders are the best in the world when it comes to tactics and strategy, but most of them have little to no experience in legal or criminal matters. And why should they have that experience? Our commanders are not prosecutors. They are not lawyers. They are warfighters, and their job is to keep our country safe, not make legal judgments about whether to prosecute a rape.

The current military justice system has failed our sexual assault survivors for too long.

This amendment very simply takes the decision about whether to prosecute these crimes and gives it to trained, experienced, independent military prosecutors.

We have all the evidence we need that this problem has not gotten better in the last year. We have more data. We have looked at more case files. We have heard from more survivors. It is clear little has changed, despite the Department's persistent claims that things are getting better, that they are making progress.

When the Department of Defense estimates that there are 20,000 servicemembers who are sexually assaulted in a year, that is not progress. When 8 out of every 10 military sexual assault survivors don't report the crime, that is not progress. When 62 percent of survivors are being retaliated against, that is not progress. When more than half of those retaliation cases--58 percent of them--are perpetrated by someone in the chain of command, that is not progress. When the percentage of survivors willing to report openly has declined for the past 5 years, that is not progress. When it was confirmed by the Associated Press that the Pentagon blatantly misled the Senate in order to skew our debate, that is perhaps the ultimate sign that there has been no progress.

Our military justice system is broken. It is failing our members. And no matter how many marginal reforms we make, as long as commanders with no legal experience are continuing to make important legal decisions on whether to prosecute violent sex crimes, we are not going to solve the problem. Once and for all, let's take the decision to prosecute these crimes and give it to trained, independent military prosecutors. Let's give our military servicemembers a justice system that is worthy of their service.

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