Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, I want to thank my senior Senator from Iowa for being the lead Republican on this bill, and I am rising today as well to support my colleague in her request today for consideration of the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act.

Our service men and women--all of them--are volunteers. They represent some of the best our Nation has to offer. They choose to serve. They swear to protect against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to defend the Constitution. In this day and age, they face many risks, but they should not face the risk of sexual assault from within their own ranks.

For years, the military has struggled to reduce the number of sexual assaults within the ranks. Yet we have seen little progress in defeating this scourge. The stories from survivors are heartbreaking: servicemembers who are attacked by their own teammates; servicemembers whose lives are turned upside down; servicemembers who are abandoned by their chain of command; servicemembers who receive no justice; and servicemembers who are left with the scars, often physical but always psychological, of a terrible experience.

I know these stories not just from the retelling by survivors of sexual assault but from being a survivor of sexual assault myself. It is time we take new action to stop these attacks, to bring justice for the victims and to prevent these actions going forward.

Our bill, with over 60 cosponsors, Republicans and Democrats from all political philosophies, and the endorsement of veterans groups, survivors groups, and individual servicemembers, does that. And our bipartisan bill takes steps to ensure the unit commander is still involved and aware of what is going on within the unit.

This bill also puts in place measures for the prevention of sexual assault. It increases security on our bases and stations. It trains leaders from the top to the bottom on developing a better command climate. It reinforces training on prevention of sexual assault.

If a foreign power were to attack any of our service men and women overseas, there would be a stampede of Senators coming to the floor and demanding action. Now I hear only the footsteps of those coming to stop us from consideration of something that would help prevent attacks on our service men and women by one of their own. It is time for action, and I urge my colleagues to pass this time agreement.

Mr. President, with that, I yield to the Senator from Connecticut Senator Blumenthal.

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Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, I want to take just a very brief moment and thank the chairman and the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee because this is a very significant move that is being proposed by Senators Gillibrand and Grassley and those of us who are cosponsors of this legislation.

It is time to act. It is time to act. If we can go back into previous years, I have been one of those nay-sayers. I have said to others that I was very torn about removing this decision from a commander's purview. I was torn. But we have not seen improvement when it comes to the areas of sexual assault and other serious crimes within our Nation's armed services. So it is time to take very bold action. It is time to take bold action.

I do share those concerns as so eloquently stated by Senator Gillibrand that we are making a bold proposal that we believe now fit for those who want prevention, like myself, those who want to reform and improve and professionalize those prosecutors within the military system. We can bring that together and move it forward, but that is not going to happen if we see it watered down through the process of the NDAA.

I would love to see this bill in its entirety passed. If that can happen through the NDAA, so be it. But as Senator Gillibrand just stated, we have worked on legislation before to see it come to fruition in the Senate through NDAA, but not have it passed and signed into law. So I do share those concerns, and I have not had assurances that we could pass the bill in its entirety.

I would also ask that we take this up for consideration on the floor. I think it is that important to move forward. There are a lot of survivors out there who would like to see this move forward. I believe that now we also have a swell of military members who would like to see this bill in its entirety move forward.

This body as a Senate--not just as Senate Armed Services Committee members, but this body as a Senate--this body as a Congress, we do have civilian oversight of the military and our civilian oversight takes into consideration those members, our constituents, who are asking for this change. Believe me, I am hearing from my constituents on this change.

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