Unanimous Consent Request--S. 1520

Floor Speech

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Ms. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I rise today to once again call for every Senator to have an opportunity to vote on a generational bill to fix how the military deals with sexual assault and other serious crimes.

It is the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act. This bill will ensure that men and women who serve in our military have the opportunity for basic justice, basic civil liberties, and basic protection under the law.

I want to start by recognizing the monumental advance toward military justice reform made during our Senate work week. The Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military released their recommendations, which included removing the prosecution of sexual assault and related crimes from the chain of command. It is a historic sign of progress after decades of obstruction.

The Secretary of Defense has agreed with the Commission's findings that the removal of sexual assault prosecutions from the chain of command and the professionalization of the military justice system would benefit survivors and in no way diminish good order and discipline. It is also a historic sign of progress that President Biden has endorsed all of these recommendations.

After years--years--of pushing for these types of reforms, this change in thinking from our military and executive leadership is truly momentous. Every crime that the IRC reviewed, they recommended removing it from the chain of command. That is a clear recognition that the current military justice system is not capable of addressing the epidemic of sexual assault among our ranks and that it is not providing justice for our servicemembers.

As President Biden said, ``This is the beginning, not the end of our work.'' While I welcome the IRC's recommendations, I am deeply heartened to see that Secretary Austin and President Biden both endorse the recommendations and will happily work with us to make them a reality. We also have to recognize that the IRC was provided a very limited task--to review only sexual assault and harassment in the military. No other crimes were under their purview. Unfortunately, they were also not asked to look at other serious crimes that are related, such as murder.

We as a Congress have been tasked with a larger job. It is our job to ensure that the military writ large works for every servicemember. The recent scandals at Fort Hood, the murder of Vanessa Guillen, and the deep racial disparities in prosecutions have made it plain that the need for reform in the military justice system goes far beyond sexual assaults. Vanessa Guillen was murdered, and she was harassed. Serious crimes such as murder deserve the consideration of military lawyers who are trained with expertise, not commanders.

For those who worry about the impact that this reform would have on command authority, I would point to the head of the IRC, the chairwoman, Lynn Rosenthal, who said:

The IRC rejects the notion that, by removing legal decisions about prosecution from the command structure, that commanders have no role. It's simply not the case. Commanders are responsible for the climates they create. They're responsible for working to prevent sexual assault and sexual harassment, and they're responsible for making sure that victims are protected when they come forward to report. So, the idea that they won't have an interest in solving this problem if they are not making [a] technical, legal [decision], we think, is simply false.

The same logic extends to all serious crimes. Commanders will still be responsible for setting the culture that prevents them, for protecting victims, and for maintaining an interest in solving these problems even if they are not making these complex, technical decisions about whether or not a case should go to trial. And in a great number of these cases that do not go forward to trial, they come back to the commander for the commander to use his discretion--nonjudicial punishment, summary court-martial, or special court-martial--the many tools he still has.

We must guarantee that we have a professional, unbiased system for all servicemembers. It is our constitutional duty to provide oversight and accountability over the Department of Defense. We are the authors of the military justice code. We are the ones who put it in place. It is Congress's duty to update it and to make sure it works. We can do that by taking this momentum and building upon it and passing the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act this year. We have the votes to pass it in committee. We have the votes to pass it on the floor. This is an issue we have been fighting for and talking about and having hearings on for 8 years.

I began calling for a full vote on the floor on this bill on May 24. Since then, an estimated 2,744 servicemembers will have been raped or sexually assaulted. More will have been victims of other serious crimes. All of them deserve justice, and it is our responsibility to provide it.

1520 and the Senate proceed to its consideration; that there be 2 hours for debate equally divided in the usual form; and that upon the use or yielding back of that time, the Senate vote on the bill with no intervening action or debate.

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