Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1960, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014; and Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1256, SWAP Jurisdiction Certainty Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. TURNER. Mr. Speaker, about 5 years ago in my community, we were saddened to hear of the news of the tragic death of Marie Lauterbach. Marie Lauterbach was a marine who came forward to report the sexual assault that she had endured and came forward and reported her belief of a subsequent pregnancy from that sexual assault, only to have the Marines inform her and the accused in the sexual assault, the perpetrator, that they would wait until her baby was born, and when the baby was born, they would do DNA testing. And if the DNA testing showed, in fact, that the baby was the accused's, then they would move forward with the prosecution. Until then, they left the two in close proximity until the accused murdered Marie Lauterbach in her eighth month of pregnancy and burned her in her backyard in a bonfire.

It was at that time that I saw that the issue of sexual assault in the military was not just one of unacceptable numbers, it was an issue of an environment where victims were re-victimized and perpetrators felt safe.

Mr. Speaker, a recent survey in the military indicated that 28,000 servicemembers have indicated that they were sexually assaulted, but less than 3,000 of those were willing to actually report it in a manner that would result in charges against their accused. We think we know why: because 62 percent of the slightly less than 3,000 indicated that they felt that they were persecuted in the workplace for having done so. They were re-victimized.

What we're doing in this NDAA is to ensure that that culture shifts, that the perpetrators are those that fear the system, and the victims are those that will feel embraced. We change the relationship between the commander and the victim, moving the responsibility for both the prosecution and the handling of those cases and diminishing the direct commander's authority over the disposition of sexual assault cases when a conviction has occurred. We expand legal counsel for victims, making certain that victims have beside them someone who can advise them in the legal processes, and we remove the chain of command's authority in the disposition of these cases and establish a mandatory minimum.

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Mr. TURNER. Mr. Speaker, we include mandatory minimums that say if you commit a sexual assault, you are out of the military, you will be dishonorably discharged, and if you are a trainer and you enter into a trainer-trainee relationship that is inappropriate, you are out. No longer will a victim be forced to salute their predator or their accused. These provisions are incredibly important. They're ones we worked with on a bipartisan basis.

I want to thank my cochair of the Military Sexual Assault Prevention Caucus, Niki Tsongas. I also want to thank Ranking Member Smith and the chairman, Buck McKeon, and also the chairs of the Subcommittee on Military Personnel, Susan Davis and Joe Wilson.

This is a matter on which we've worked together very thoughtfully. At the same time, we know that Chairman Dempsey, Secretary Hagel, and former Secretary Panetta have made this a significant issue to address in the military. What we're trying to do on a legislative basis is to give them the tools to, once again, make perpetrators fear the system and hold them accountable.

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