Eliminate Barriers to Reporting Sexual Assault and Harassment in the Coast Guard

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, last night, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in an overwhelming majority, 376-16, to pass H.R. 7659, the Coast Guard Authorization Act.

This critical measure, which Congress approves every 2 years, authorizes Coast Guard procurement programs, such as Coast Guard shipbuilding, which is so necessary in terms of carrying out the Coast Guard's mission both at home and overseas, and also makes prudent adjustments to shoreside infrastructure, including the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, which is located in my district in New London, Connecticut.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, in 2023, the press discovered that there was an investigation that the Coast Guard internally conducted over a number of years, tracking and identifying an unacceptable and really outrageous amount of sexual harassment and even sexual abuse that was happening on the campus. The report, which the new Commandant, Admiral Fagan, did release publicly, describes a totally unacceptable situation, which this Coast Guard authorization bill does address.

Specifically, the bill includes H.R. 5249, the Coast Guard Academy Safe-to- Report Parity Act, which I introduced with a bipartisan coalition, that requires the Coast Guard to prescribe a safe-to-report policy to protect personnel who report incidents of sexual assault or sexual harassment from being punished for minor offenses, which may hinder them reporting acts which they were victims of.

In February of this year, the Commandant, Admiral Fagan, directed the Coast Guard to establish this policy through administrative action. Our bill, which we passed last night, will actually codify the policy and make it part of the Federal U.S. Code and bring parity for the Coast Guard with the Department of Defense and its service academies, which have had this law in effect for the last 5 years.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, many victims of sexual assault hesitated to report because they feared repercussions for minor collateral misconduct. In fact, a recent Coast Guard workplace gender relations survey found that 25 percent of the female victims who chose not to report their sexual assaults were concerned that they might get in trouble for something else that they did.

This bill will firmly and finally eliminate a barrier to reporting sexual assault and harassment, taking fear of repercussions off the table.

Again, I thank Admiral Lisa Fagan for her outstanding leadership and for working diligently with me, my office, and other Members of Congress to craft this crucial policy. I also thank Chairs Graves and Webster and Ranking Members Larsen and Carbajal for their work in passing the Coast Guard authorization out of committee and bringing it to the floor last night for a successful vote.

Again, I urge my colleagues in the Senate to quickly craft their version of the bill and make sure that we codify these protections for outstanding young cadets who are going to be the future leaders of the Coast Guard for decades and decades to come.

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